2020-11-01 Australian Geographic UserUpload Net

The very best of Australia’s nature, culture, people and places

AUSTRALIANGEOGRAPHIC.COM.AU

Little Aussie diggersEchidnas on the march

landmark witness statement for

our planet

Sir David Attenborough’s

Ray Martin’s amazing outback discovery

Fight for the Kimberley

The last wildernessIndigenous knowledge

reducing bushfire risk

Walking with fireTownsville’s new marine museum

Underwater art

9 >

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CONTENTSAustralian Geographic November • December 2020

November . December 7

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SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGHHis landmark witness statement on

the state of planet Earth.

UNEARTHING CLIMATE HISTORYWhat old handwritten weather

records reveal about the future.

40

MASTERS OF DISGUISELeafy and weedy seadragons beguile

underwater photographer Scott Portelli.

46

THE LAST WILDERNESSScientists, Indigenous groups and

landholders join forces to save the Kimberley.

54

ULTIMATE SURVIVORUnlocking the enigma of the echidna.

66

WALKING WITH FIREIs traditional Indigenous burning practice

key to preventing a repeat of the Black

Summer bushfi res?

76

F E AT U R E S

86 A BAY OF PLENTYMoreton Bay, the marine wildlife

hotspot within cooee of Brisbane.

86 A bay of plenty

66 Ultimate survivor

46 Masters of disguise

76 Walking with fi re

WA

SA

NT

QLD

NSW

VIC

TAS

18

96 Running Man Rock

p54

p116

p106

p86

p76

p96

96 RUNNING MAN ROCKRay Martin’s amazing

outback discovery.

p16

8 Australian Geographic

CONTENTS

O N T H E C OV E RPriscilla Kasidis captured this little

one marching along the turf on an

echidna mission on a Melbourne

golf course. “There were holes in

the fencing from local kangaroos,

so I slipped through and photo-

graphed it marching towards me!”

Subscribe to AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC for

12 issues and save more than $49.

Plus, receive our just-released photographic book, Urban Wild, valued at $59.95.

Australian Geographic November • December 2020


200 years of Antarctic exploration

Life onthe ice

Our alpine regions under pressure

Snow fall

Australia’s adored avian ambassadors

Hello, budgie

A thrilling new era in space

Back to the moon

Fold-out map of Antarctica included with this issue


Best nature photos of the year

Indigenous food industry scales up

Bush tucker boom

The canines defendingour wildlife

Dogs on the frontline

What really happened on NZ’s White Island?

Volcano tragedy

★Anniversar yEnd of W W275th

Gippslandresilience

A community fights back


Little Aussie diggersEchidnas on the march

landmark witness statement for

our planet

Sir David Attenborough’s

Ray Martin’s amazing outback discovery

Fight for the Kimberley

The last wildernessIndigenous knowledge

reducing bushfire risk

Walking with fireTownsville’s new marine museum

Underwater art

S U B S C R I B E A N D S AV E

G E O B U Z Z A N D R E G U L A R S

11 From the Editor

14 Your Say

16 Big Picture

24 Snapshot: Qantas turns 100

27 Book Club

28 Defi ning moments: Slavery

29 Tim the Yowie Man: Our vanishing lake

30 Bird Nerd: The eyes have it

33 Dr Karl: What were pterodactyls?

35 Space: Mystery in a ring of light

36 Wild Australia

39 Your Society

Special note: Members of Aboriginal

communities are warned that this edition of

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC contains images and

names of deceased people.

T R AV E L W I T H U S

106 Submerged art Townsville’s new underwater

art museum

116 Glittering pride Alice Springs honours Priscilla,

Queen of the Desert, with a new event.

Your Society

Find out where your donations

are going in 2020 and get the latest

news. p39

116 FabAlice

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S E E PAG E 5 2 F O R M O R E D E TA I L S

106 Museum of Underwater Art

Give a Gift that keeps on growing

Growing parks and saving species.www.fnpw.org.au

Donate Now

Last summer’s fires were the largest environmental disaster in Australian history.

Over 12 million hectares of trees … gone.*

We want to replace every tree that was lost, and we want you to join in.

Donate one tree, a family of trees and if you’re a company, a forest.

Every dollar you donate will go towards becoming a tree.

We are the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.

One tree $10. Ten trees $100. Fifty trees $500.

*ScienceDirect Trends in Ecology & Evolution, September 2020, Vol. 35, No. 9757.

DISCOVERHINCHINBROOK ISLANDHead to north Queensland... this tropical, World Heritage paradise is the perfect place to restore mind, body and spirit.

Hinchinbrook Island, the world’s

most accessible wilderness,

has it all. From pristine coastline

and walking tracks to secluded

waterholes, tropical reefs and

a riot of marine life, the island

invites you to dive in.

THORSBORNE WALKING TRAILFringed by beautiful beaches, the

island is famed for its varied terrain.

The 32km Thorsborne Trail, one of

Australia’s most coveted, winds its

way north to south through tropical

forests, golden beaches, rocky

headlands and bubbling creeks.

With a maximum of just 40 walkers

at a time, you’ll explore it in peace.

SWEET CREATURESSwim in the aquamarine waters

of Hinchinbrook and be charmed

by loggerhead, flatback and green

turtles as well as the enchanting

cows of the sea, dugongs. The

island supports 273 different types

Go as fast or as slow as your heart

desires on Hinchinbrook Island.

Discover more: hinchinbrookway.com.au

of wildlife, including

66 bird and 22 butterfly

species, and countless

colourful reef fishes.

WATER WONDERLAND One of Australia’s largest island

national parks, Hinchinbrook is

fringed by the World Heritage-

listed Great Barrier Reef, and is

a Mecca for water-sport lovers.

From snorkelling and scuba diving

to stand-up paddleboarding and

deep-sea fishing, there’s fun to

be had at every turn. And if a

freshwater frolic is calling you,

visit the island’s interior to relax at

Zoe Falls, complete with a natural

infinity pool, or in Mulligan Falls’

deep waterhole, which sits high

above the sparkling beach.

Go as fast or as slow as your heart desires on Hinchinbrook Island.

Dive in. Explore. Relax.

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@hinchinbrookway #hinchinbrookway

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC ADVERTORIAL


IT’S PROBABLY too early to think of what benefits

COVID-19 might bring, while the pandemic continues to take its deadly toll. But it’s one of the best aspects of human

nature that we try to find good in the face of adversity.

A quick flick through this issue of Australian Geographic reveals a theme that recurs time and again in our conservation and science reporting, the involvement of ordinary private citizens in essential research projects run by academic institutions. Once the preserve of the qualified research community, essential long-term field observations are now being carried out by members of the public, thanks in part to a combination of special smartphone apps, data-gathering websites and a fast-growing artificial intelligence capability that can quickly analyse vast amounts of data and imagery.

In this issue we discover the invaluable public contribution being made to: understanding past extreme weather events (page 40), protecting seadragons (page 46), and unlocking the mysteries of our beloved, quirky echidnas (page 66).

The pandemic has severely limited professional fieldwork opportunities as well as keeping most of us confined to homes and backyards – slowing us all down and gifting us time to get to know our neighbourhoods better, perhaps also seeking out pockets of natural bushland where we could legally exercise.

During these past months we must certainly have become more aware of and familiar with the native species that surround us. Hopefully, we have learnt to appreciate our wild neighbours – birds, butterflies, frogs, possums, lizards and more. As our human footprint eats away at natural habitats, we urgently need to make room in our modern world for native wildlife. The future of our species depends on it, according to Sir David Attenborough, who has released his impor-tant witness statement for the planet in a new book and cinema documentary film (page 18).

It’s a powerful call to action from the man who, more than any other, has entranced generations with the wonder of the natural world during

Silver linings

From the Editor-in-chief

six decades of documentary filmmaking. David reveals how a childhood fascina-tion with his local amphibian wildlife in the UK, such as newts and frogs, set him off on his life’s mission.

So do heed Sir David’s impassioned call and find ways to get involved and make a difference. Look at contributing to the rich raft of citizen science projects available. Or be inspired, grab a camera and capture the beauty of nature all around you, just like Priscilla Kasidis does. A dental assistant and amateur shutterbug, Priscilla took our stunning

cover photograph of a short-beaked echidna. Who knows? Perhaps you could also get your photo on the cover of Australian Geographic! Congratulations, Priscilla.

All the best for the rest of the massively challenging year that is 2020 and, of course, much joy for the approaching Christmas and holiday season.

IF YOU ARE a subscriber to AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC

you are automatically a member and supporter

of the Australian Geographic Society. A portion

of each subscription goes towards supporting

scientific and environmental research,

conservation, community projects and

Australian adventurers.

AG subscriber benefitsSubstantial savings off the

magazine’s retail price

Invitations to exclusive

AG Society events

Discounts on travel and accommo-

dation through AG partners

25% off selected cruises with

Coral Expeditions

A complimentary Paddy Pallin membership,

entitling you to 10% off their full-priced

items in-store and online

Free VIP membership to the QBD Books

Customer Loyalty Program

Benefits include:

Priscilla Kasidis enjoying a close

encounter with

a local rainbow

lorikeet.


Award-winning underwater photogra-pher Scott Portelli (pictured above)

has dedicated the past five years to

photographing the life cycles of weedy

and leafy seadragons. “As I spent more

and more time with these endemic

Australian creatures, I developed an

understanding of their ecology and why

their habitat was so important to their

survival,” says Scott, whose first-ever

story for AG, Masters of disguise,

begins on page 46.

Spending hundreds of hours

documenting the two seadragon

species has allowed Scott to capture all

stages of their development, from egg

and embryo to when they hatch as tiny

versions of adult seadragons. He has

witnessed pairs of adults displaying a

whole range of courting behaviours and

borne witness to the many intricacies of

the daily lives of these mesmerising

creatures. Scott is particularly proud of

the way in which his dedication to

photographing seadragons is supporting

the efforts of citizen science programs

that rely on firsthand observations and

data from people who are able to

regularly encounter wild seadragons.

Another first-time AG contributor,

Anna Kantilaftas, turned her COVID-

cancelled red-dust road trip into gold

when news of a new community event

in Alice Springs caught her attention.

“When I first found out about FABalice,

it threw quite the spanner in my

carefully curated adventure,” Anna says.

“I was due to leave Adelaide in early

March and drive my way over the vast,

southern, red-dust Aussie outback

before stepping aboard the iconic Ghan

in Alice Springs. But then I received

details about FABalice – a spectacular,

glittering drag festival, inspired by an

icon of Aussie cinema, Priscilla, Queen of

the Desert. The pandemic turned my

itinerary to dust, so I booked a flight to

Alice, landing just in time to see the

kaleidoscopic filter settle in [Glittering pride, page 116]. It was fitting that I’d

be leaving Alice in the shiny silver Ghan

that sparks some resemblance to

Priscilla the bus before she was painted

lilac. More intriguing is just how clearly

FABalice highlighted the diversity of

Alice Springs. And yes, I’m still trying

to wash the red dirt and glitter out of

my clothes.”

Features editors: Elizabeth Ginis, Joanna Hartmann, Karen McGhee

Regular columnists: Linda Brainwood, Glenn Dawes, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM, John Pickrell,

Fred Watson AM, Kel Richards, Tim the Yowie Man, Peter Rowland

More contributors: Anthony Calvert, Simon Cherriman, Quentin Chester, Ken Duncan, Cathy Finch,

Justin Gilligan, Caitlin Howlett, Priscilla Kasidis, Ray Martin AM, Andrew Mayo, Charlie Price,

Ben Quinton, Nick Ruff ord, Jason Stephens, Clare Watson, Lida Xing

Notes from the field

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC is printed in

Australia by IVE,

Unit 1/83 Derby Street, Silverwater NSW 2128

under ISO 14001 Environmental Certification.

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC, journal of the Australian Geographic Society, is published six times a year (cover dates Jan–Feb, Mar–Apr, May–Jun, Jul–Aug,

Sep–Oct, Nov–Dec) by Australian Geographic Holdings Pty Ltd (ABN 12 624

547 922), 52–54 Turner Street, Redfern NSW 2016. The trademark Australian Geographic is the property of Australian Geographic Holdings Pty Ltd. All

material © 2020. All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the editor-in-chief.

This issue went to press 16.10.2020

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MANAGING DIRECTOR Jo Runciman

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chrissie Goldrick

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mike Ellott

SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT EDITOR Karen McGhee

SUB-EDITOR Elizabeth Ginis

DIRECTOR OF CARTOGRAPHY Will Pringle

PROOFREADER Susan McCreery

ART DIRECTOR Harmony Southern

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AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC DIGITALDIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth Ginis

DIGITAL PRODUCER Angela Heathcote

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC COMMERCIALMANAGING EDITOR Katrina O’Brien

COMMERCIAL MANAGING EDITOR Lauren Smith

ASSISTANT COMMERCIAL EDITOR Peter Tuskan

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETYFOUNDER, PATRON Dick Smith AC

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Email: [email protected]

In search of dragons

A s dawn breaks on Banrock Station, in South Australia’s riverland, feathered

flashes of gold zip in and out of hollows in stately river red gums, while ’roos graze on native grass nearby. These agile aviators are what the station’s wetland manager, Tim Field, has been waiting patiently for. “September/October is eastern regent parrot survey time,” Tim says, “so we’re up well before dawn to make sure we can


track the breeding population. So far, this year, it’s doing really well.” Listed as vulnerable, the bird relies on two habitat types for its survival – nesting in mature river red gums within 20m of water and feeding in nearby mallee ountry.

Banrock Station’s Ramsar-listed wetland is dotted with river red gums, so is the ideal breeding ground.

As well as providing vital habitat to the parrot, the wetland, which is located on

the floodplain of the River Murray about 2.5 hours north-east of Adelaide, also hosts 190 other bird species, including the black swan, grey teal, whistling kite, red-backed kingfisher and blue-faced honeyeater.There’s an 8km walkway around the wetland, and five bird hides.

“Since 1994, we have been restoring the wetlands through a number of activities, including reintro-

Toast Banrock Station’s Ramsar wetland, a safehaven for

Left: Spend the day on Banrock

Station discovering the wealth of

native plants and animals, including

’roos in the vineyards (below), along its 8km walkway.

Bottom: Wetland manager Tim Field.

ducing natural wetting and drying cycles in the wetland, planting thousands of native trees and shrubs, and creating a haven for native wildlife,” Tim says.

In 2002, the wetland was listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, recognising its international significance as habitat for threatened species and migratory birds. The natural habitat zones on the property exist side-by-side with Banrock Station vineyards, which comply with the highest environmental standards.

For more information head to Banrock

Station, where every drop matters.

banrockstationbanrockstation.com.au

Every drop matters

banrockstation.com.au

Discover our journey and help protect our beautiful planet


ANTARCTIC HEROI wish to thank you for a wonderful article about arguably the least known continent, Antarctica (AG 157). From the fantastic images it’s easy to understand why it draws the most determined of adventurers. May I point out an error on the timeline of events in the Modern Era; the conflict between Great Britain and Argentina actually took place during 1982, not 1988 as published. I am aware of this detail because I have a special interest in what is considered the first offen-sive action of the [Falklands] war. When the Argentine flag was raised at South Georgia, HMS Endurance, a Class 1 icebreaker, was dispatched in

YOUR SAY November . December 2020

I’ve just read the article on the tragic

White Island eruption (AG 158).

I’d like to congratulate the magazine

and author on a factual, non-

emotive, scientifically correct

coverage of this event and, unlike

some media and other outlets,

not having any insinuations of blame

for the tragedy. It was gripping!

I particularly found it so, because I

have been to Whakaari/White Island

on six occasions; for five I organised

geological tour groups there. It is a

fascinating, active (perhaps unfortu-

nately so) scientific laboratory, not

only for geologists, but for anybody

interested in experiencing how this

facet of Earth’s processes work.

Given the event on 9 December last

year and the unseen event in April

2016, I count myself and the groups

I took very fortunate. I must admit

that on each occasion I visited I had

an underlying feeling of unease, and

a feeling that I was pleased to leave,

in what is an awesome place (and

unlikely that the public will be

able to visit for the

forseeable future).

I attach a few

pictures. The picture

(top right) of our group

on the edge of the

active crater, filled with

a liquid of pH 0.6, is

typical of where groups were

taken (this was 2005). On a visit

in early 2017, we went to more

or less the same place, but the

active crater was empty, except

for noisy (high-temperature)

fumaroles, and I suspected that

things had heated up (but of

course, this was after the April

2016 event).

The perennial sulphuric acid

stream (pictured bottom right)

running out of the crater must

have been responsible for carrying

the bodies of the two unfortunate

casualties out to sea following the

heavy rain after last year’s eruption.

Associate Professor Paul Ashley,

Armidale, NSW

Featured Letter

response. My uncle, Colour Sgt Peter James Leach, DSM P031491S of the Royal Marines, was aboard the Endurance and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his contribution to the events at Grytviken, South Georgia. He was one of 22 marines captured by the

Send letters, including an address

and phone number, to [email protected] or to Australian

Geographic, GPO Box 4088,

Sydney NSW 2001. Letters will be

edited for length and clarity.

MAILBAG WELCOMES FEEDBACK

Argentine Navy that day. His DSM was the only medal of its kind awarded during the Falklands War. This picture (left) was taken prior to the Argentine engagement from the jetty of the research station at Grytviken. The abandoned whaling station can be seen in the background. My uncle is positioned second row, fourth from the right. Your article has galvanised my determination to visit this bleak but beautiful wilderness.

RICHARD KAY,

MELBOURNE, VIC

Ed: We apologise to our readers and writer Alasdair McGregor for our incorrect placement of text about the 1982 conflict.

WRITE TO US!Send us a great letter about AG or a relevant topic for the chance to be our featured letter and win an AG T-shirt.

TRAGIC MEMORY

LOUSY EXPERIENCEThe article about Point Nepean Quarantine Station (Traces, AG 157) stirred my memory of the first time I set foot on Australian soil, on 20 June 1952. I was travelling to Melbourne on the Lloyd Triestino ship Neptunia, when, to our surprise, we stopped at Point Nepean and the passengers were taken ashore to be deloused! We had to strip and take a shower while our clothes were being fumigated. It seemed a pointless exercise because we then returned to the ship and all our otherpossessions, which were untreated. It was an unsettling experience on arrival in our new country!

JOHN KAHSNITZ,

EAGLE POINT, VIC

NATURE’S POWERI received my latest Australian Geographic and have read the White Island article and thought it was a wonderfully written piece with great insight into a what nature can throw at us.

GLENDA MAES

BALLARAT EAST, VIC

UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHSI always read Australian Geographic with great interest since my mother bought me a subscription more than 10 years ago. As an Aussie, I want to become more aware of our shared history with our First Australians. This means uncomfortable truth-telling before we can step

forward and be reconciled with our past. Last year I saw a documentary called The Warrigal Creek Massacre, which outlined the violent history of East Gippsland that came with European settlement. Scottish explorer Angus McMillan has been described as a pioneer pastoralist, mass murderer and butcher of Gippsland due to his interaction and murder of the Gurnaikurnai people. Upon reading Bruce Elder’s Lakes Entrance timeline in AG 158 (Aussie Towns), I saw it featured a photo of Angus McMillan and Bruce described him as the first European to reach Lake Victoria, in 1840. This is true and Bruce also stated that the Gurnaikurnai people have been recognised as the traditional owners of the area. However, so much truth has been left unsaid and if we keep telling our history without mention of these conflicts and the virtual wiping out of the traditional owners of this land, how can we reconcile with our past?

SUE CLISBY,

THE PATCH, VIC

WHO’S A CHEEKY LITTLE BIRD THEN?Long before Errol Flynn or Paul Hogan were known overseas, the budgerigar (AG 157) was our most famous export. From statesmen to royalty and even Hollywood heart-throbs, this lovable Australian has captured the hearts of bird lovers everywhere.

MICHAEL WOUTERS,

BUNDABERG, QLD

In September, we reported on a new

scientifi c paper that found the

Gympie-Gympie stinging tree

contains the same toxins as those of

spiders and scorpions.

JANET CROWE

Thirty-fi ve years on, I still remember

my fi rst agonising sting! I can easily

believe the toxins are similar.

GARY O’DONNELL

I’ve been stung twice. You will never

forget it and it can last a few weeks

or more.

LAURIE BIMSON

My dog backed up on one to do her

business. She was scraping her bum

for a while.

JOMA MACK

The leaves may look perfect for bush

toilet paper. DO NOT be fooled.

JOY BROOKS

Dreadful pain! Never forgotten.

Talkb@ck

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A feature article in AG 157

celebrated our lovable budgie

and its role as an Aussie icon

on the world stage.

GEOBUZZNOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2020


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B IG P ICTURE

DURING THE breeding season, these wedge-tailed eagles continuously line their huge eyrie, built in the canopy

of a tall eucalypt in Western Australia, with freshgum leaves. This provides a ‘disinfected’ plat-form for their growing eaglets. While their mother was off accepting prey from her mate, AGS-sponsored ornithologist and PhD student Simon Cherriman, who was the 2010 AGS Young Conservationist of the Year, scaled the tree to inspect and photograph the nest’s contents. Simon climbed high above the eyrie to tempo-rarily fi x on a horizontal bough a GoPro camera set to record time-lapse images, which captured this high-angle view.

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW By Simon Cherriman

FOR MORE INFORMATION on Simon’s

wedge-tailed eagle research in WA, visit:

simoncherriman.com.au/research

Follow Simon on Instagram: aquila84wa


STORY BY NICK RUFFORD

Sir David Attenborough has released

his witness statement on the plight

of the planet through a landmark new

book and documentary film.

In this special interview that took place in May, the legendary broadcaster and naturalist shared his hopes

and fears for Earth’s future.

S I R D AV I D AT T E N B O R O U G H

A L I F E O N O U R P L A N E T


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AS HE LOOKED FORWARD to his 94th birth-day in May, Sir David Attenborough solemnly reflected on a very different planet from the one on which he grew up. “We need to reconnect with nature, for our own health – as well as the

Earth’s,” he said.After a lifetime of bringing nature into our living rooms,

Sir David wants us to get out of our armchairs and help save the natural world we’ve enjoyed watching on TV. Decades of relentless industrialisation, urbanisation and intensive farming have driven a wedge between us and our animal ancestors, he warns, and the disconnection between modern families and nature is getting worse.

“I think it’s terrible that children should grow up without knowing what a tadpole is – just awful,” he says. “I can’t criticise other people on how they bring up their children, but in my time I could, and did, get on a bicycle and cycle 15 miles [24km] to a quarry and spend the day looking for dragonflies, grass snakes and newts, as well as fossils.”

Losing touch with nature not only affects the way we treat the planet, but also affects us on a primal level.

“We are now recognising clinically that it is important to have contact with the natural world, for people’s sanity,” he says. “Anybody will recognise that in moments of both exultation and deep sorrow that’s where you go. That’s where you grieve and that’s where you contemplate real things, the natural world. Psychologists recognise this, and I think it’s the case for everybody. If you lose contact – emotional contact – with the natural world, you’re badly deprived.”

As a youngster before World War II, Sir David pedalled his Raleigh junior bike up hill and down dale, at a time when, he admits, there was less traffic on the roads and less to distract children from the wonders of the natural world (including TV documentaries). As he looks around him now, he sees a very different world. Swathes of rainforest in Borneo where he made his early films have been burnt and bulldozed to make way for palm oil plantations. Arctic sea ice has shrunk by a third. Some of the reefs where he dived for his first underwater series are now lifeless.

This, he explains, is why he’s still campaigning when he could be putting up his feet. Against stereotype, he’s grown more outspoken as he’s grown older. “I belong to the generation that really created all this stuff. We had no concept that we were ruining the world, none. I suppose you can say, well, you were very insensitive, you should have realised, but I don’t think many people did.”

His latest film, and its namesake book, A Life on Our Planet, produced in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature, borrows the cadence of Life on Earth, his land-mark 1979 TV series, but shows the world in a different light. Instead of the pristine habitats and unspoilt wildernesses of that era, this production aims to show the monumental scale of humanity’s impact on nature. It is his most political film

GEOBUZZ

to date. Not only is the Earth gaining humans and losing animal and plant species at a pace it can’t sustain, Sir David says, but it is also heating up at a rate that could tip it into sudden, catastrophic disaster.

At the beginning of the film, we see him stepping gin-gerly through the ruins of the Ukrainian town devastated in 1986 by the Chernobyl nuclear power station meltdown (see book extract on page 22). The message that unfolds during the next 83 minutes is just how destructive humankind can be, as we see rainforests torn down, slabs of polar ice collapsing and lifeless coral. At the end he returns to the long-abandoned town to show how nature has reclaimed it. If we are intent on destroying our own species, it will eventually happen. Nature will find a way to carry on, even though humans may no longer be around.

The theme is that such destruction is a modern phenom-enon, brought about by the baby boomer generation and its excesses, and it is generation Z that is paying the price for their sins. Sir David endorses this view, declaring that he and his generation have “done terrible things” and that the future is in the hands of young people who understand “science and our dependence upon the natural world”.

Probably no-one else alive has seen as much of the Earth’s surface over such a long period of time as Sir David has. To make just that one series of Life on Earth he travelled more than 2.4 million kilometres to 30 countries and filmed more than 600 species. Audiences have voted him the greatest broadcaster of all time, cooler than footballing superstar David Beckham in a poll of coolest men and, most recently, the person they trust most on environmental matters, more so than 17-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

People listen when he sounds the alarm, but he also has an upbeat message about how we can help save the planet. A first step is to eat less meat. “The big demand that we’ve imposed on the planet is to get meat,” he explains. “That’s what’s taken over so much of our countryside. That’s what’s causing the Brazilian rainforest to be knocked down, to turn it into grazing – for more hamburgers. We can’t afford to do that anymore and sustain the number of people we’ve got.”

IS HE VEGETARIAN? “I don’t eat meat. That’s not entirely true, I eat fish. It wasn’t a great sort of decision and I can’t pretend that it was motivated by any ecological

conscience, but I now avoid red flesh.”The other thing we can all do is live modestly. Even

small changes make a difference. If we avoided food waste, we could feed five instead of four.

“I try to recycle,” Sir David says. “It’s more like a religious practice, a kind of ritualised thing.”

Does he drive an electric car? “I don’t drive. I’ve never driven. Well, that’s not true, I can drive, but I’ve never driven. Never had a reason, never had a car.

“My daughter drives and we’re getting an electric car. We haven’t yet got it. We’ve got a little – I don’t know P

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whether I ought to mention it or not – a little German job. A [fossil-fuel powered] VW.”

None of the current concerns about the planet occurred to him when he first crisscrossed the world in jetliners that were flying gas-guzzlers, complete with ashtrays in the armrests. “Yes, 40 years ago we didn’t realise there was a problem of climate change. Forty years ago we were concerned about disappearing species and how we could save them. Arabian oryxes and so on; gorillas. Nobody said to me, and I didn’t say to myself, you are wrecking the climate with the amount of carbon that jet airliners emit. You’re complicit in that. It didn’t occur to me.”

Sir David’s lifelong love affair with nature, creatures, unspoilt habitats and the wilderness began when his father gave him his first pet, an amphibian called a fire salamander, for his eighth birthday. He beams as he recalls the occasion. “They’re absolutely magical things. If you’ve never seen one before, it’s jet black with sulphur spots on it,” he says. “They are quite innocuous and they’re quite slow-moving so you can handle them no problem at all. I had an aquarium that I turned into a vivarium with moss and stones and so on, and a little pool at the bottom on one side.”

His first foray into natural history collecting came a year later when he began supplying newts to the University of Leicester zoology department, where his father was principal, for threepence each. Showing an early flair for enterprise, he didn’t reveal that the newts were from a pond only yards from the department.

SIR DAVID JOINED THE BBC Television Service in 1952 having previously graduated from the University of Cambridge where he had studied geology and zool-

ogy. If you can’t remember a time when there wasn’t an Attenborough wildlife documentary on TV, it’s because there wasn’t one really. In those days, the service was a fledgling arm of the BBC, broadcasting to only a few thousand people. Sir David’s brief as a producer included “politics, gardening, even knitting”.

Already married, with an infant son, he had no plans to travel the world until a zookeeper who was to have presented a new program about animal collecting fell ill. In 1954 a 28-year-old Attenborough was dispatched with a cameraman to find a rare jungle bird.

“When I started making natural history films – I’m almost ashamed of it now, but there’s no point in denying it – I was making a film about London Zoo, which was collecting animals. Rare animals? Oh, good, let’s go and scrag it and take it back to London, he recalls. “You wouldn’t dream of doing that now.”

Zoo Quest was a success. More collecting programs were commissioned. Colour TV arrived. Film photography evolved to show animals in close-up, in slow motion, in high- definition and in a spectacular window into the natural world

of the African plains, polar icecaps, rainforests and coral reefs, always with David Attenborough as the guide.

On early trips he brought home animals to keep as pets – a practice he admits would be unthinkable today – including “lemurs, parrots and hummingbirds”. The most unusual spec-imens were two lungfish, living relics of prehistoric times. His favourites were a pair of bush babies – small nocturnal primates – that ran loose in the house and had a fondness for marking their territory with urine. He recalls that dinner guests would sniff the air as they entered the house, wonder-ing whether their hosts were cooking strong-smelling soup.

These days he has firm views on which animals should be kept in zoos: “There are lots of things that live perfectly well in captivity and you can give them all they need. Equally, there are things that should not, under any circumstances, be kept in captivity. You should not keep raptors; you shouldn’t keep eagles in captivity. Dreadful. I don’t think that you should keep lions in captivity, unless you can provide them with an enormous area.”

He has been urinated on by bats, dive-bombed by gulls, and he has swum with hungry grey reef sharks. To capture one vital shot he put his head in a lion’s mouth – for real. In 1961 he was filming a program about Elsa the lioness. Sleeping in his Land Rover in the Kenyan bush, he was awoken “by a stench of bad breath and opened my eyes to find her jaw dripping saliva inches above my head”.

For years he travelled with only a battered leather suitcase. His wife, Jane, would pack it and see him off at the airport, never knowing quite when he would return. Then, in 1997, when he was filming a series about birdlife in New Zealand, Jane, then 70, suffered a brain haemorrhage. He flew to her bedside at a London hospital just in time for her to squeeze his hand before she died. They had been married for 47 years. Afterwards, he threw himself deeper into his work. Life is very different without her, he says, still missing her terribly.


GEOBUZZ

Georgie the sulphur-crested cockatoo with

Sir David and three-year-old daughter Susan

in the garden of their Richmond home in 1957.

He collected the parrot in New Guinea.

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EVERYONE HAS THEIR favourite Attenborough TV moment. If you watched Life on Earth in the 1980s, it may be the time he rolled around with silverback

mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Or it may be more recently, on the BBC’s Africa series, when he got down on all fours to chat to Nicky the baby rhinoceros.

His own favourite moments are not when animals are reacting to him, but when he’s observing: “The most moving times, as far as I am concerned, are when the natural world is unaware of your presence. A swamp in northern Australia, for example, I can remember very well sitting in a hide in the darkness, waiting for the sun to come up. You can hear that there’s a big community of water birds – and the sun comes up and you see egrets and there are crocodiles and you see a whole complex ecosystem just throbbing with life and beauty. You watch it for a bit, and you do something silly and alarm them, then the whole lot disappears. But you have that moment of revelation.”

He is still making documentaries, writing books and presenting BBC Radio 4’s Tweet of the Day (about birdsong, not Twitter). He still wears his trademark blue shirt and khaki chinos on screen, though he has shifted to satellite and streaming, making films for Sky and Netflix as well as the BBC, drawing in bigger audiences than ever.

One thing that may slow him down is if he runs out of film titles containing the word ‘planet’. Attenborough’s Our Planet was shown on Netflix last year, and his Seven Worlds, One Planet on the BBC. He is working on a BBC series about

plants, Green Planet. Previously he has made Planet Earth, Planet Earth II, Blue Planet and Blue Planet II, Frozen Planet and Our Fragile Planet.

These days he’s less often in a hide or behind the camera, and more often in a recording studio providing the voiceover. He stresses that it’s film crews who spend months capturing footage and that they, not he, should take the credit. “People think I’ve shot the film and I get the credit,” he says. “People say, what was it like when you got really close up with those narwhals, you know, under water? I say, I wasn’t there, and they say, what? I say, no [raising his voice for emphasis], I wasn’t there!”

Money has never been his motivator, though he earned more than £1m in 2017–18 from his private company, David Attenborough Productions. He still lives in the same Victorian townhouse in south-west London he shared with his wife. He was renowned for travelling economy class and never taking upgrades unless the whole crew was upgraded, until he reached 75, when the BBC insisted he travelled business class.

Despite his fame, he remains engagingly modest. For years the joke in the Attenborough family was that he only got a knighthood because a palace official confused him with his older brother, Sir Richard, the actor and director (who died in 2014). And he’s a paragon of honesty. He has never done an advert, he says, because “my job is telling the truth, and if I say margarine is butter, people will think, ‘He’ll say anything.’”

HIS OWN FAVOURITE MOMENTS ARE WHEN

HE’S OBSERVING.

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Sir David gets close to

a wandering albatross

chick on the island of

South Georgia during

filming for Life in the

Freezer in 1992.

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PRIPYAT WAS built by the Soviet Union, in one

busy period of construction in the 1970s.

It was the designed, perfect home for almost

50,000 people, a modernist utopia to suit the

very best engineers and scientists in the Eastern

Bloc, together with their young families. Amateur

film footage from the early 1980s shows them

smiling, mingling and pushing prams on the wide

boulevards, taking ballet classes, swimming in the

Olympic-size pool and boating on the river. Yet no

one lives in Pripyat today. The walls are crumbling.

Its windows are broken. Its lintels are collapsing. I

have to watch my step as I explore its dark, empty

buildings. Chairs lie on their backs in the hairdress-

ing salons, surrounded by dusty curlers and broken

mirrors. Fluorescent tubes hang down from the

supermarket ceiling. The parquet floor of the town

hall is ripped up and scattered down the length

of a grand, marble staircase. Exercise books litter

the floors of school rooms, neat Cyrillic handwrit-

ing scoring their pages in blue ink. I find the pools

emptied. The seats of sofas in the apartments have

dropped to the floor. The beds are rotten. Almost

everything is motionless – paused. If something is

stirred by a gust of wind, it startles me. With each

new doorway you enter, the lack of people becomes

more and more preoccupying. Their absence is

the truth that is most present. I’ve visited other

post-human towns – Pompei, Angkor Wat and

Machu Picchu – but here, the normality of the

place forces your attention on the abnormality

of its abandonment. Its structures and accoutre-

ments are so familiar that you know their disuse

cannot simply be due to the passing of ages.

Pripyat is a place of utter despair because every-

thing here, from the noticeboards that are no

longer looked at, to the discarded slide rules in the

science classroom, to the shattered piano in the

cafe, is a monument to the capacity of humankind

to lose everything it needs, and everything it treas-

ures. We humans, alone on Earth, are powerful

enough to create worlds, and then to destroy them.

So, although we yawn when self-interested politicians warn about climate change, when Sir David talks we listen – even when his message is stark.

In the 60-plus years he has been making documenta-ries, he points out, the world’s population has more than doubled: 7.8 billion people today, heading to 11 billion by the end of the century. Many of the habitats and species he filmed in those early days have vanished or are in retreat. If we don’t mend our ways – rein in population growth and live less wastefully – we’ll wipe out life as we know it, including ourselves.

So is he right to blame himself and his generation for the planet’s problems? His 1961 film, Zoo Quest to Madagascar, was ahead of its time, revealing the damage caused by climate change and deforestation. At one point Sir David walks along the vast bed of a dried-up river commenting that the lack of water is “a clear indication of the drastic changes in climate that have overtaken this part of Madagascar. It’s likely that, only a few hundred years ago, when the gigantic birds [Aepyornis sp.] were alive, this was not a desert, but a great area of swamp.”

Climate change was already happening in 1961 but the scale of our impact on nature has grown, as has the amount of money at stake. Climate change is now a global industry on which livelihoods, careers, reputations, marketing budgets and sales forecasts depend. It pays for academics, research groups, lobbyists, publishers and filmmakers, among others, and gen-erates profits for thousands of companies involved in green technologies. Clean-energy company Tesla has ballooned into the world’s second biggest car company by value. BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, is sinking a sizeable chunk of its $7 trillion funds into “sustainable” investments. To sceptics, it sounds like opportunism. They take the view that there are

always doomsayers warning of disaster – a hole in the ozone layer, acid rain, nuclear accidents. Sir David thinks this time it is genuinely different, citing extreme weather events such as the Aussie bushfires, and he argues that the sceptics may never be convinced until it’s too late. For him, the message is simple. Be considerate. Live modestly. The future is at stake, he says, not for him but for the next generation, for his two granddaughters, at university in the UK. “You know, we’ve overtaken the world,” he warns. “We are representatives of a very powerful, damaging species. Don’t waste. Don’t waste electricity. Don’t waste food. Don’t waste time.”

His own time is running out, he says: “I’m 93. How long have I got? I haven’t got 10 years, I don’t think.” Will he ever retire? “Well, when people want me to do things, I do things,” he says. “If they don’t want me to do it, I’ve retired.

“I have the greatest job in the world, you know. What a privileged time I’ve had. People provide me with wonderful pictures of things we’ve never seen before and ask me to write a sentence on it. Better than sitting in the corner knitting.”

AG


GEOBUZZ

“ I HAVE THE GREATESTJOB IN THE WORLD, YOU KNOW.”

A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough,

published by Ebury Press. Special AG and QBD

price $29.99 (RRP $39.99)

Order now at australiangeographic.com/books

or turn to p29 for your chance to win a signed copy.

In his new book, Sir David reflects on his extraordinary life and the devastating changes he has witnessed. In this exclusive extract, he ponders the destructive power of the human race.

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET will be

available to watch in cinemas and globally via Netflix later this

year. For more info and to register for updates:

au.attenborough.film or follow on Twitter @ourplanet


Nathan Ferlazzo for Maxwell & Williams

maxwellandwilliams.com.au A share of the profi ts from the purchase of the Marini Ferlazzo collection goes to the protection of wildlife around the world.

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Family inspiration with Marini Ferlazzo A long-time love of the outdoors and animals, and a deep

and abiding belief in one another, set Nathan Ferlazzo and his family on a course for success – illustrating the wonder of the natural world that surrounds us here in Australia. Why did you choose to go into business

with your family?

I was inspired by my Nonno, my mum’s

dad. He has always had family businesses.

Our family has always been close, and I

wanted to get them involved so we could

all work together. My Nonno’s surname

was Marini, so our company name is

actually two surnames.

Any advice for people who are looking to

start a family business?

Choose the right family members to work

with! You need to get along with them in a

professional format. I work with my mum

and sister; we all have a similar thought

process and outlook about where we

want to take the business. It can be quite

intense working together on something

that requires so much passion. Make sure

you allow everyone to use their skills for

the diff erent parts of the business – don’t

try to do everything yourself. I have found

making use of everyone's skills has been

crucial to successful relationships and in

turn, the success of our business.

How has your family life led you to have

such a connection to animals?

My parents have always loved animals,

so I think I was always interested in them

because of that. Our love for animals and

nature is what inspired our business and

is defi nitely shown in the collections.

Plus, we're outdoorsy, always being in

nature makes you more connected.


WITH ITS WINGS severely clipped by the current pandemic, the aviation industry is enduring a turbulent time, making 16 November 2020 particularly poignant. It’s the 100th anniversary

of Qantas, which, as one of the most iconic Australian businesses, has helped define our domestic and international identity.

Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd (QANTAS at first, then later rebranded as Qantas) was reg-istered on 16 November 1920 in Winton, central western Queensland, by two Gallipoli veterans – Paul McGinness and Hudson Fysh. With financial backing from grazier Fergus McMaster and with engineer Arthur Baird on board, the company took off. Air travel appealed to the Australian imagination, and, being a pragmatic response to the country’s vast landscape, it was adopted enthusiastically. The company began operations in 1921 with two open-cabin biplanes fly-ing mail and, from 1922, passengers between small outback towns. By 1930 Qantas had 11 planes, six of which were made locally in their own workshops, and had flown more than 10,400 passengers around the country. By 1950 one in six Aussies were already taking at least one flight a year, making us among the planet’s most air-travelling peoples.

Overseas passenger flights began in 1935, with a DH-86 Brisbane–Singapore service that took three and a half days. The first Australia to Great Britain service began in 1938. Flying boats flew from Sydney’s Rose Bay, via Brisbane, to Singapore, where Imperial Airways would take over for the rest of the flight. In the same year, Qantas began using flight crew who were all male. Women would not start welcoming passengers on board Qantas planes as ‘air hostesses’ until 1947.

By 1943 Catalina flying boats were travelling non-stop from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to Perth, on the only regular air service across the Indian Ocean. Passengers on this route were in the air non-stop for more than 24 hours, recognised by a membership certificate to the Rare and Secret Order of the Double Sunrise. The 1944 introduction of Liberator aircraft brought the travel time down to 17 hours on what

AVIATION CENTENARY

From a runway in outback Queensland, our national carrier first took to the skies a century ago and has been helping

overcome Australia’s tyranny of distance ever since.

Linda is a picture researcher and the editor of the

Dictionary of Sydney website at the State Library of NSW. PH

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was branded the Kangaroo Service and passengers were inducted to the Elevated Order of the Longest Hop.

These Liberators were the first aircraft to carry a Qantas emblem depicting a kangaroo, a circular design based on the reverse-side image of the Australian penny coin. This was revamped by influential designer and artist Gert Sellheim to promote the airline’s new Kangaroo Service to London, and appeared on the airline’s new Lockheed Constellations in January 1947. The elegant flying kangaroo he designed has been reinterpreted over the years but remains the basis of the company’s distinctive insignia today.

LINDA BRAINWOOD

Qantas’ female staff have always been decked out in fashionable

outfits. The summer uniform pictured here is from the late 1940s

when Qantas employed its first ‘air hostesses’.


GEOBUZZSmart frocks and accessories

were essential for the glamour and

excitement of early air travel.

Brisbane department store

McWhirters designed an exclusive

range for “ladies who flew”, modelled

here in 1936 with a Qantas Empire

Airways DH-86 at Brisbane’s

Archerfield airfield, where Qantas

officially opened an office in 1935.

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GEOBUZZ

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unique

and very

photoge-

nic. With

cheeky

‘grins’

and

lovable personalities, it’s no

wonder they were named

“happiest animal in the world”

by The Huffi ngton Post in 2013.

When the opportunity

presented itself for award-

winning animal photographer

Alex Cearns to shoot quokka

images for this book, she

jumped at the chance. As she

captured images over the

course of several visits to

Rottnest Island, the quokkas

(mostly) ate, played, and

interacted with each other.

The result – The Quokka’s

Guide to Happiness – is

a stunning collection

of photos paired

with uplift ing

inspirational

quotes, the

perfect tribute to

an Australian

marsupial celebrity.

“Some were very

friendly and would run

towards me at full speed,

as if we were long-lost friends,”

Alex said. “Others were more

cautious in their approach, but

as soon as I sat still, their

curious natures would get the

better of them and they would

slowly come closer and then

act like I wasn’t even there –

which generally meant they

got on with eating.”

AVAILABLE 2 DECEMBER

RRP $24.99

LOVING COUNTRY

By Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou

Loving

Country is

a powerful

guidebook

off ering a

new way

to discover

Australia

through

an Indigenous narrative. In this

beautifully designed and

photographed edition,

co-authors Bruce Pascoe and

Vicky Shukuroglou show

travellers how to see and fall

in love with the country by

knowing its ancient story.

Featuring 18 places in detail,

from Brewarrina’s ingenious fi sh

traps and the rivers feeding the

Great Barrier Reef, to the love

story of Wiluna and Margaret

River’s whales, there is much to

celebrate. This book covers

history, Dreaming stories,

traditional practices,

Indigenous tours

and the impor-

tance of

recognition and

protection of

place. It off ers a

key to unlocking

the heart of this

country for those who

want to enrich their

understanding of it, and for

travellers looking for more than

a whistle-stop tour of Australia.

In Loving Country, Bruce and

Vicky hope that all communi-

ties will be heard when they

tell their stories, and that

these narratives and the

country from which they

have grown will be honoured.

AVAILABLE 2 DECEMBER

RRP $45

ALL THESE BRAND NEW TITLES are available to order from our online

Australian Geographic store

australiangeographic.com.au/books

or call 1300 555 176

or visit any QBD bookshop.

The famed quokka ‘grin’.

RECOMMEN

DEDR

EADING

THE AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC BOOK CLUB THE AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC BOOK CLUB

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DURING FOUR DECADES from 1863 more than 62,000 South Sea Islander men, women and children were brought as labourers to Australia. Many were kid-

napped in a practice known as blackbirding.After Queensland became a distinct colony in 1859, its

government was eager for income and encouraged trade. Australia’s first viable sugar cane harvest was taken in 1862 near Brisbane. The first commercial sugar mill began pro-duction soon after, and, recognising the industry’s potential, the federal government encouraged the establishment of large plantations. In the early 1800s labour in Australia’s colonies had been cheap and plentiful due to a surplus of convicts, ticket-of-leave holders, emancipists and indentured servants, but this changed with the abolition by 1868 of all convict transportation. Because sugar production required a large workforce, Queensland plantation owners proposed using ‘coloured’ labour. This was in response to both the white labour shortage and the belief white people could not endure hard physical work in a tropical climate. For the first time, in 1863, a group of 67 South Sea Island labourers was brought to Brisbane to work, initially on a cotton plantation. But cotton soon proved unviable, and, when sugar showed promise, most were sent to work in the cane fields instead.

South Sea Islanders had been recruited, mostly by white men contracted by plantation owners, since the 1840s for labour-intensive industries across the Pacific. The labourers, known as Kanakas, came from 80 different island nations, including Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and had little legal protection from exploitation. Even more controversial were the trade’s ‘recruitment’ techniques. Many workers were taken forcibly by labour agents; others were deceived about what to expect in Australia. From 1863 to 1904 more than 62,000 people were brought to work in Queensland’s sugar, pastoral and maritime industries. In 1868 the state govern-ment introduced the Polynesian Labourers Act, hoping to limit their exploitation while on transport ships and in the fields. But unscrupulous operators found ways to circumvent the legislation’s aim to prevent blackbirding, and forced recruitment continued. In 1880 the legislation’s first major revision came with the Pacific Labourers Act (Queensland), which made forced recruitment techniques illegal and imposed minimum living standards on ships, which were to be enforced by government inspectors. But they weren’t always conscientious and some took bribes from crew.

The White Australia movement was gaining strength by the 1880s and the importation of ‘coloured’ labour was broadly opposed by Australian unions wanting to protect their members’ jobs. Yet plantation owners continued lob-bying for cheap imported labour. In 1891 the Queensland government imposed a ban on recruiting indentured South Sea Islander workers, but it was postponed for 10 years when the sugar industry was badly affected by a global economic depression. On 17 December 1901 the governor- general assented to the Pacif ic Island Labourers Act (Australia), which provided for “the Regulation, Restriction and Prohibition of the Introduction of Labourers from the Pacific Islands and for other purposes”. It was part of a legis-lation package the new federal government enacted in its first year that constituted the White Australia policy and required deportation of most South Sea Islander labourers from 1906.

About 10,000 islanders living in Australia when the Act was passed mounted a campaign to oppose it. Letters of protest were sent to the prime minister, governor-general and the king, but no major changes were made to the Act.

The deportations began in late 1906 and continued until 1908, returning more than 7500 South Sea Islanders to their countries of origin, even though many had arrived here so young they had no memory of the places they’d left. About 2500 remained in Australia.

In 2000 the Queensland government recognised South Sea Islanders as a distinct ethnic and cultural Australian group and acknowledged the discrimination and injustice they had experienced throughout their history in Australia. P

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AUSTRALIA’S SLAVE TRADE

Part of the Defining Moments in Australian History project

To find out more: nma.gov.au/definingmoments

These South Sea Islander women on a sugar cane

plantation near Cairns in about 1895 were among thousands

brought to Australia in the 19th century as rural labourers.


1863: First South Sea Islanders brought to work in labour-intensive Queensland industries.

GEOBUZZ

I’D LOVE TO HAVE a dollar for each

time someone has asked me, “Isn’t

Lake George connected to a lake in

China, or is it Siberia?”

According to this far-fetched,

yet surprisingly oft -touted, theory,

the water levels in Lake George,

an ephemeral body of water located

between Goulburn and Canberra,

“go up as the water levels in [insert

random name of another lake in China

or Siberia] go down, and vice versa”.

Of course, any suggestion freshwater

lakes in diff erent hemispheres are linked

is fanciful rubbish. So just what does

cause the lake’s fl uctuating levels,

which have mystifi ed many travellers

since ex-convict-come-explorer Joseph

Wild fi rst set eyes on this “inland sea” on

19 August 1820, to fl uctuate so wildly?

In the 200 years since Wild’s visit,

the lake, which, when full, has 60km

of shoreline, making it the largest

freshwater natural lake in inland

New South Wales, has completely fi lled

and emptied on numerous occasions.

Despite the proliferation of theories

to the contrary, various studies have

proven that the shallow lake – 6m at

its deepest and with an average depth

of 2.5m when full – fi lls and empties

purely as a result of rainfall

and evaporation.

It can take several years of above-

average rain for the lake to be fi lled by

fi ve small creeks that empty into it, but,

resembling a large shallow saucer, and

with no outlets, the lake can dry out

quickly during a hot, dry summer.

While the myth that Lake George’s

water levels are connected via a

network of subterranean funnels to

other lakes around the world is, dare I

say, blown out of the water. Explaining

just how the lake’s water levels can

also appear to vary on the same day

is a little more tricky.

William Glover, a meteorologist

based at the lake in the 1890s,

recorded the water level temporarily

falling almost 500mm in one day.

This sudden variation, which

continues to mystify modern-day

travellers, is explained by the prevailing

winds. By day, the wind usually blows

from the west, and, because the lake is

shallow, a strong wind can blow the

water towards the eastern side of the

lake. At night, the wind is oft en an

easterly, which simply blows the water

back to the other side. This phenome-

non, which occurs in some other lakes

around the world, including Lake

Geneva, between Switzerald and

France, is called a seiche.

Governor Macquarie named the

“noble expanse of water” aft er the

reigning monarch King George IV.

There is now a move to refer to the

lake by its Indigenous name of

Weereewaa, which, according to

Ngambri elder Shane Mortimer, means

“place of many migratory birds”.

Recent rains have fi lled the lake

to its highest level in years. If this

continues, one thing is certain: it will

be due to a wetter-than-average

summer, and not water mysteriously

gushing down some subterranean

funnel from Siberia.

OUR VANISHING LAKETIM THE YOWIE MAN

AS A NATURALIST, author, broadcaster and tour

guide, Tim has dedicated the past 25 years to

documenting Australia’s unusual natural

phenomena. He’s written several books,

including Haunted and Mysterious Australia

(New Holland, 2018). Follow him on Facebook

and Twitter: @TimYowie

Wet and dry views,

from the same

vantage point,

across Lake George.

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For your chance to win a

hardcover copy of Sir David

Attenborough’s new book,

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness

Statement and Vision for the

Future, personally signed by

the legendary broadcaster and

naturalist himself, visit the

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC website.

Enter at australiangeographic.

com.au/159

A LIFE ON OUR PLANETWIN A SIGNED COPY

During the fi rst weekend in

December, ABC TV will broadcast

live from the Great Barrier Reef

as the annual spectacle of coral

spawning unfolds. Experience the

anticipation and wonder as you’re

taken live to where corals across

the outer reef synchronise the

release of eggs and sperm in an

extraordinary natural phenom-

enon. You’ll also witness the

accompanying annual feeding

bonanza by fi sh, birds and turtles.

REEF LIVE will be a celebration

of our greatest natural treasure

as we meet scientists, Indigenous

rangers, conservationists and

reef ambassadors, all working to

preserve the natural and cultural

heritage of the reef for the future.

REEF LIVE

is a special

two-part

event airing

live on Friday

4 December

and Sunday

6 December

at 8.30pm on

ABC TV. Also

available via

ABC iview.

REEF LIVEWATCH


Lucas Handley, Scientist

Occasionally an

all-white zebra

fi nch is seen

in nature.

B I RD NE RD with Peter Rowland

THE EYES HAVE IT

FOLLOW Peter on Twitter: @_peterrowland and Instagram: _peterrowland

YOU MIGHT KNOW of British

mathematician Alan Turing, who

invented the fi rst programmable

computer to crack the German’s secret

Enigma code during World War II. But

he was also responsible for publishing

a mathematical concept in 1952 that

explained the hidden order underlying

how patterns form in nature, including

spots and stripes on animals.

Most birds, in particular, exhibit

some degree of patterns and colours.

Australia’s diminutive zebra fi nch,

for example, was so named because of

the zebra-like black and white bars on

its rump and tail. But it also has many

other colours and patterns, from a

bright orange bill and cheek patches to

fi ne white spotting along its reddish-

brown sides.

The zebra fi nch is Australia’s most

abundant and widely distributed grass-

fi nch species, occurring throughout

most of mainland Australia. It’s a com-

mon and familiar bird in the drier parts

of the country, where large numbers

congregate around watercourses, their

chorus of nasal ‘tiah’ and ‘teh-teh’ calls

fi lling the air.

When we see such a highly pat-

terned bird we assume all individuals

of that species have their spots, stripes

and blotches in the same places. But

look closer and you’ll see that the quan-

tity and design of these patterns varies

between individuals. And every now

and then a bird exhibits a more obvious

plumage variation. Occasionally, we

see one that has larger than usual pale

areas of plumage or, more rarely, has

lost its normal patterning altogether.

Colouration and patterning in

all animals is caused by a range of

pigments. Melanin is responsible for

blacks and browns,

and a lack of this

pigment can cause

a partial or total loss

of an individual’s dark

patterning. The two main terms that

describe these anomalies are albinism

and leucism. Both conditions are ge-

netic and inherited and both can lead

to a very similar physical appearance.

Leucism, however, causes a lack

of the pigment cells that produce

melanin. But albinism causes the

production of melanin pigment to be

reduced or absent. Can we distinguish

between the two conditions without

the help of a cellular biologist? Yes,

and the trick to telling them apart is

all in the eyes.

Albino animals have fully unpig-

mented red eyes. Leucistic animals,

on the other hand, never completely

lose pigment from the eye, although

they can have blue eyes (heterochro-

mia) due to a partial loss of pigment.

Heterochromia is most common in

animals that are fully leucistic.

Why don’t we see more albino or

leucistic birds? Because the lack of

melanin reduces the strength and

durability of the aff ected bird’s

feathers, making them more prone to

breakage. Additionally, the bird’s vision

and hearing is negatively aff ected,

making it less able to hunt. The brighter

plumage and lack of patterning also

makes them easier for predators to see.

Birds can also produce an excess

of melanin. This results in the aff ected

bird being darker than usual.

GEOBUZZ


EVENTS

PH

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PETER R

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OF

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Sylvia Earle This esteemed

marine scientist has been a

lifelong advocate for the protec-

tion of the world’s oceans and

creation of marine protected

areas. In this episode she talks

of the journey that led to

her becoming one of

the most respected

voices for ocean

conservation and

how she hopes

to inspire a new

generation of

young female

ocean scientists

and conservationists.

Bradley MoggridgeA Murri man from the Kamilaroi

Nation (in NSW) and water sci-

entist, Bradley has dedicated his

life to fi nding ways, imbued with

Aboriginal knowledge, to better

manage Australia’s water in the

age of climate change.

Angie Scarth-JohnsonAt age seven, Australian

rock-climbing sensation Angie

was already climbing grades

that other rock climbers spent

years fi guring out. Today, the

16-year-old is in a league of her

own and keen to represent

Australia at the Tokyo Olympics.

Joe BoningtonThis master adventurer fi tness

trainer has a gift for helping

ordinary people unlock their full

potential to achieve things they

never thought possible.

Other inspiring podcast guests

include Valerie Taylor, Dr Glenn

Singleman and Terri Irwin.

For a full list and how to

subscribe for free to the

AG podcast, see:

australiangeographic.com.au/

series/talking_australia

Talking Australia

Subscribe and never miss an episode of our enter-

taining podcast.

REACH FOR THE REMOTEMount Hagen Cultural Show

EXPLORE THE HIGHLANDSAs the world starts to slowly reopen, and as travellers make more conscious decisions about where they want to travel to next, we pose the following question – how about travelling to Australia’s closest neighbour, a mere 150km to the north of Cape York?

Remote natural beauty and rich diverse culture abounds right on your doorstep. Have you added Papua New Guinea to your 2021 bucket list yet?

Find your remote at www.papuanewguinea.travel

With nature right at your doorstep, a Holiday Haven park

is the perfect place to escape from it all. Located in the

Shoalhaven South Coast, just two hours from Sydney

and under three hours from Canberra.

Visit holidyahaven.com.au to book your next break today.

Escape and unwind with Holiday Haven

holidayhaven.com.auCamping | Caravan & RV | Safari Tents | Cabins

ILLU

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I USED TO THINK pterodactyls were

two-legged fl ying dinosaurs. Yes,

they could fl y, but they were not

dinosaurs and they had four legs.

Pterodactyls were part of a

larger group called pterosaurs –

literally “fl ying reptiles”. Although

they existed at the same time as

dinosaurs, about 200–66 million

years ago (mya), pterosaurs were

a completely diff erent group.

They were widespread across Earth,

with at least 110 known species in

more than 85 genera.

Pterosaurs did not have feathers.

Instead, their wings were fl exible

membranes of muscle, skin and

related tissues. This membrane

stretched from the ankles, up along

the sides of the rather short ptero-

saur body and out to the wing tips.

Some of them – notably

Quetzalcoatlus spp. – were the larg-

est creatures ever to fl y, with wing-

spans of 10m and more – bigger

than a modern-day F-16 fi ghter

aircraft . That’s three times bigger

than today’s largest fl ying

animals – the wandering albatross

and the Andean condor.

Some pterosaur species had a

torso that made up only one-

quarter of their body length.

The remainder was a very long

neck and even longer head.

To potential prey, they were

the fl ying jaws of death.

Some of the pterosaurs weighed

250kg, making them the heaviest

creatures ever to fl y. There’s always,

of course, been one big mystery:

how did they take off or launch into

fl ight, when they were that heavy?

And we have fi nally worked it out.

First, they had a very strong, but

very light, skeleton. Second, their

membrane wings gave more lift than

wings with feathers.

And fi nally, they had lots of

haunch, or launch, power. Having

four limbs – two short, powerful hind

legs and two long front legs that un-

folded into wings – gave them more

than double the power of a two-

legged animal trying to launch.

They would crouch, bending their

hind legs, which they’d straighten to

vault upwards, then continue with

their front legs to add a catapult

action, before fi nally lift ing off –

all 250kg of them.

Anyway, in the Great Extinction

66mya, why did all the pterosaurs

die out, when the birds did not?

Nobody knows – yet.

This expression is now known

worldwide, as the COVID-19

pandemic continues. But it’s our

expression…coined here in Australia.

The earliest recorded mention of contact

tracing comes from the October 1910

edition of the Australasian Medical

Gazette in an article about school

epidemics. It talks of the importance of

the school nurse in “swab-taking,

contact tracing, and similar necessary

details”. The dictionary definition is “the

action or process of identifying individ-

uals who have been in the proximity of

a person diagnosed with an infectious

disease”. Whether or not Australia gives

the world a vaccine, we’ve already

provided the name for tracking down

those who have met a COVID carrier,

because we’ve coined (and shared with

the world) the term contact tracing.

Got a question for Kel? Go to: ozwords.com.au

By Kel Richards

CONTACT TRACING

DR KARL is a prolifi c broadcaster, author

and Julius Sumner Miller fellow in the School of

Physics at the University of Sydney. His latest

book, Dr Karl’s Random Road Trip Through

Science, comes with pop-up holograms and is

published by HarperCollins Publishers

Australia. Follow him on Twitter at @DoctorKarl

GEOBUZZ

WHAT WERE PTERODACTYLS?

NEED TO K N OWwith Dr Kar l Kruszelnicki


Quetzalcoatlus species such

as this were pterosaurs with

wingspans of up to 11m.

B r i d g e c r o s s i n g s , s u n s e t s w i t h

c o l o u r s s o r i c h i t d r i p s f r o m t h e

s k y , d i n n e r w i t h w i l d l i f e . T h e l i t t l e

t h i n g s . T h e E x o s / E j a f e a t u r e s

u n c o m p r o m i s e d d u r a b i l i t y i n a n

u l t r a l i g h t p a c k a g e t h a t d e f i e s b e l i e f .

T h e o n l y w a y t o d i s c o v e r w o n d r o u s

m o m e n t s i s t o g e t o u t t h e r e a n d f i n d

t h e m . S o g r a b y o u r f r i e n d s , p a c k

y o u r g e a r a n d m a k e i t h a p p e n .

E X O S | E J A

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LOOKING UP

Naked eyeThe brilliant planet

Jupiter is in the early western

evening sky. Only Mars (in the

north) and the brightest star,

Sirius (rising in the east), come

close to its brightness.

Although not as luminous, its

fellow gas giant, Saturn, trails

Jupiter by a few degrees and

also stands out.

x1

with Glenn Dawes

x100Small telescopeThe drawing closer of

Jupiter and Saturn reaches a

spectacular climax in

December. The Moon looks

impressive next to them on the

17th, the start of a seven-day

period when these planets will

be visible together through your

telescope. Enjoy! This won’t

happen again for 20 years.

x10 BinocularsTwo smaller compan-

ion galaxies to the Milky Way

– the Large and Small

Magellanic Clouds – lie high in

the southern evening sky and

are visible to the naked eye.

Binoculars reveal the LMC has

an obvious central bar with

many bright star clusters and

nebulae, notably the Tarantula

Nebula at the eastern end.

Glenn Dawes is a co-author of the yearbook Astronomy 2020 Australia (Quasar Publishing).

quasarastronomy.com.au

Back in 1936, Albert Einstein remarked on a phenomenon he himself predicted was so

unlikely to occur that we would never see it. It’s a consequence of his General Theory of Relativity, which says that any massive object distorts the space around it, bending passing light rays and producing something we call a gravitational lens. This effect has been validated many times during the past century.

But Einstein’s 1936 prediction concerns a particular gravitational lens scenario – when the massive object sits directly between ourselves and a much more distant light source, such as a star or galaxy.

Intuitively, you would imagine that the intervening massive object would block our view of the distant source, but it does the reverse by virtue of the gravitational lens. It magnifies the light, making the distant source much brighter than the nearer object. When the align-ment is exact, it turns our view of the distant object into a perfect ring. Not surprisingly, this is called an Einstein ring, and the first complete specimen was discovered in 1998.

Fast-forward to today. We now have an extraordinary example of how the study of Einstein rings has progressed. A very remote galaxy with the unmemorable name of SPT0418-47 has been observed, not in visible light but in microwave radiation, by the Atacama Large

Millimeter-Submillimeter Array (ALMA), operated in northern Chile by the European Southern Observatory in partnership with other agencies. SPT0418-47 appears as a bright ring due to the gravita-tional lens of an invisible intervening galaxy, but with structure that lets us tease out what it would look like if we could see it directly in close-up.

Using the fine details of its blotchy appearance, the ring has been deconstructed into an accurate image of SPT0418-47 by a team of German and Dutch astronomers. They have revealed something that looks remarkably like a galaxy in today’s Universe, with a rotating disc and central bulge. That’s surprising, since the distance of this galaxy means we see it as it was more than 12 billion years ago, when the Universe was just 1.4 billion years old.

Most galaxies we can observe from this early epoch are unstruc-tured and chaotic, compared with those in the modern Universe. Why is this one so neat and tidy? And are there others like it? Those questions are now the subject of further study.

FRED WATSON is Australia’s

Astronomer-at-Large. Hear

him on the weekly Space Nuts

podcast. Follow him on

Twitter: @StargazerFred.

His latest book is Cosmic

Chronicles: A User’s Guide to

the Universe.

MYSTERY IN A RING OF LIGHT

SPACE★

Reconstructing the appearance of galaxy

SPT0418-47, from ALMA

data using computer

modelling, revealed a

disc like those of spiral

galaxies seen today.

GEOBUZZ


This year, populations of our most internationally recognisable animal were decimated. Will new conservation measures in NSW be able to keep koalas from extinction?


FOR THE KOALA, this has been a shocking year. But with luck the disaster the species has faced will be

the turning point that fi nally persuades Australians to truly value this national icon and do everything possible to bring it back from the brink of extinction.

Since our cover feature on the belovedmarsupial early this year (see Unbearable loss, AG 155), it hasbecome clear that the impact of the bushfi re crisis was worse than any of us dared think. The results of WWF Australiasurveys released in July showed that up to 71 per cent of koalas died in six populations in northern New South Wales. These are some of the only detailed post-fi re surveys done so far, and they hint at what to expect in other fi re-hit habitat.

Also in July, a NSW government inquiry released fi nd-ings that as many as 5000 koalas – perhaps a third of the state’s population – had been killed and that, without drastic conservation action, the species was heading towards extinc-tion in NSW by 2050. On Kangaroo Island, where intro-duced koalas had rampantly over-populated in the island’s blue gum plantations, these marsupials were hit worst of all. South Australia’s Wildlife and Habitat Bushfi re Recovery Taskforce estimated that less than 20 per cent of the previ-ous population of 50,000 remained, after fi res swept across more than 40 per cent of the island, destroying 85 per cent of koala habitat.

Part of the problem of knowing how bad the impact of the fi res has been on the species is we’ve never had good estimates of koala numbers to begin with. They are shy, cryptic and well camoufl aged in the trees where they live. Even skilled human spotters routinely miss them.

The last detailed national koala census, in 2016, put num-bers at 144,000–605,000. Regardless, the species had clearly been declining in NSW, Queensland and the ACT, due to land clearing, urban development, dog attacks, car strikes and the disease chlamydia. This meant that federally it was listed

as vulnerable in these areas in 2012. The federal environ-ment minister, Sussan Ley, is considering a proposal to have the species’ conservation status in these jurisdictions upgraded to endangered. But a decision on that is not expected until after this issue goes to press.

Unfortunately, being listed as vulnerable or endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act doesn’t always off er a species as much protection as it might need. A WWF report in April, for example, showed land clearing in koala habitat had increased since the 2012 listing. Compared with 2004–12, destruction of koala habitat in Queensland and NSW in 2012–18 was up by 7 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

Post-fi res, the NSW government has taken steps to improvethe species’ prospects. In response to the fi ndings and dire pre-diction of its own inquiry, it announced an $84 million plan to protect koalas. It included the planting of huge numbersof trees, strong new land-clearing rules and the creation of new protected areas, including Guula Ngurra National Park in the Southern Highlands (declared in August this year). The move around land clearing was so contentious it led to friction within the NSW government’s Liberal-National coalition.

“I don’t want to see the koala extinct by 2050, I want to see their population doubled,” NSW energy and envi-ronment minister Matt Kean told reporters. “Koalas are the most iconic example of our mismanagement of the environment and we’ve got to say ‘enough is enough’.”

Because climate change increases the chance of more frequent and intense bushfi res, droughts and heatwaves, these measures alone are not going to be enough to save the koala, but they are a good start.

HELPING KOALAS CLING ON

JOHN PICKRELL is the author of Flames of Extinction,

a book about the eff ect of the bushfi re crisis on Australian

wildlife, out next February (NewSouth Publishing).

Follow him on Twitter: @john_pickrell

WI LD AUSTR ALIA

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GEOBUZZ

WAWalk wildfl ower trails, Rottnest Island

November is the ideal time to enjoy

Rottnest Island’s wildfl owers, includ-

ing carpets of purple-blue Rottnest

daisies and coastal pigface. One way

to enjoy the island’s 1500 wildfl ower

species, many of which are adapted

to windy and salty conditions, is along

the 45km Wadjemup Bidi walking trail.

The daisies are particularly abundant

in the dunes behind Henrietta Rocks

and Parker Point. For more info: Call the

Rottnest Island Authority on 08 9432

9300 or visit rottnestisland.com

Nitmiluk NP, Katherine Gorge and a

spot about 50km north of Katherine on

Edith Falls Road are all sites to poten-

tially spot the endangered Gouldian

fi nch. Early morning at waterholes and

pools is the best time to see

these gorgeous birds

fl uttering in to drink,

with your chances

enhanced on a

specialist birding

tour. For more info: Call Katherine

Visitor Informa-

tion Centre on

08 8972 2650 or

visit visitkatherine.

com.au

NTFind a Gouldian fi nch, Katherine region

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QLDSee wild koalas, Magnetic Island

Although koalas in many places fared

terribly this year, the population of

up to 800 on Magnetic Island, a

25-minute ferry ride from Townsville in

northern Queensland, remains relatively

healthy. This is one of the best places

to spot wild koalas up close. Look

out for them dozing in trees on the

4km-return Forts Walk, which starts

at Horseshoe Bay Road at the turn-off

to Radical Bay. For more info: Call the

Townsville North Queensland visitor

centre on 07 4721 3660 or visit

townsvillenorthqueensland.com.au

DIARY ENTRIES

Coastal pigface.

LITTLE MORE THAN a year

ago our landmark 2016

coff ee-table book A Portrait

of Australia was transformed into a

stunning touring photographic exhi-

bition by our talented colleagues at

the National Museum of Australia

(NMA) in Canberra. And it’s been

pulling in crowds wherever it has

been on display.

So far, there have been exhibi-

tions at Toowoomba, Bribie Island,

Capalaba, Warwick and Winton

in Queensland and at Manjimup in

Western Australia. The exhibition

proved extraordinarily popular at

these regional centres. And being

fortunate enough to travel to the

fi rst couple of shows, pre-COVID,

AG’s editor-in-chief, Chrissie Goldrick,

was overwhelmed to see fi rsthand

the hugely positive reactions of

visitors to the images on display.

During the next couple of years,

these images, which represent the

very peak of AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC’svisual storytelling for more than

30 years, are set to be displayed in

venues right around the country.

The exhibition can be on show in

more than one venue at a time,

so there’s every chance it will be

coming to a centre near you.

It opens next month, on

3 December, at its home venue,

the NMA, which is renowned for

the visitor experience it provides.

With travel and event restrictions

now easing, it’s the perfect time

to explore all that this stunning

cultural gem has to off er and that

includes, of course, AG’s wonderful

A Portrait of Australia exhibition.

We hope to run a series of events

during the exhibition at which you

will be able to hear from the talented

photographers whose work appears

regularly in AG. Chrissie Goldrick

will also be hosting an illustrated talk

and guided walk through the exhi-

bition, sharing stories behind some

of the photographs and insights into

AG’s approach to creating these

enduring visual narratives.

See A Portrait of Australia at the

NMA from 3 December 2020 to

7 March 2021.

For more info: nma.gov.au

PORTRAIT OF AUSTRALIA Stories through the lens of AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC.

EXHIBITION NEWS

The Bribie Island Seaside

Museum exhibition, with

Chrissie Goldrick presenting.

Your SocietyAustralian Geographic Society news and events


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EVERY SUBSCRIBER to this journal

automatically becomes a

member of the not-for-profit

AG Society. Your subscription

helps us fund Australia’s

scientists, conservationists,

adventurers and explorers.

Your subscription is essential to the

Australian Geographic Society

To subscribe, call1300 555 176

Patron: Dick Smith AC

Chair: David Haslingden

Secretary: Adrian Goss/

Page Henty

Directors: Kerry Morrow,

Jo Runciman

Advisory Council: Chrissie

Goldrick, John Leece AM,

Tim Jarvis AM, Anna Rose,

Todd Tai

THE SOCIETY runs sponsorship

rounds in April and November,

during which it considers

applications and disburses

grants that are funded by the

Australian Geographic business.

The Society also awards the

Nancy-Bird Walton sponsorship

for female adventurers, and hosts

annual awards for conservation

and adventure.

Each year it gives in excess of

$100,000 to worthy projects.

Who are the Australian Geographic Society?

MAKING ROOM FOR TASSIE DEVILS

MAKE A DIFFERENCE. PLEASE DONATE TODAYFunds raised will help us learn more about how to conserve our unique Tasmanian devil.

Visit australiangeographic.com.au/fundraising

The success of Aussie Ark’s Tasmanian

devil breeding program continues with

captive-bred animals being released into

large tracts of feral-free bushland in the

Barrington Tops region of NSW. It’s hoped

they will display normal devil behaviour

and feed and breed their way to a healthy

wild population that will help provide a

bright future for this marvellous but

endangered marsupial. The AG Society is

raising funds for the

purchase of individual

trackers so young

devils can be monitored

after they disappear into the

landscape. Already more than 300

devils born in captivity have been raised

in this way to foster natural behaviour,

helping ensure they maintain the skills

needed to survive in the wild.

AG SOCIETY FUNDRAISER

At the beginning of the

nightmare 2019–20

bushfire season, in early

November last year, the Society

pledged $50,000 towards

bushfire relief. At that stage we

could have had little idea of the

devastation that lay ahead. So

far, we have disbursed funds to

the RSPCA Wildlife Hospital in

Queensland, and the Founda-

tion for National Parks and

Wildlife to fund its wildlife

carers program. Our next

recipient will be the Forktree

Project, led by Tim Jarvis.

Tim was the first person to be

awarded the Society’s gold

medallions for both adventure

and conservation, for his work

as a polar explorer and in

bringing attention to climate

change by trekking to the

world’s equatorial glaciers to

show the extent that ice had

retreated in recent decades.

The Forktree Project aims to

rehabilitate a degraded

53ha former pastoral property

on South Australia’s Fleurieu

Peninsula, returning it to nature.

Presently, the charity is

involved in re-establishing tens

of thousands of native trees

and shrubs on the property.

These will, in turn, bring back

native mammals, reptiles, frogs,

birds and insects and also

sequester thousands of

tonnes of carbon. Forktree

has now been included in a

Conservation Volunteers

Australia grant application

to the federal government to

establish 8ha of glossy

black-cockatoo casuarina

woodland habitat. This will be

on a section of the Forktree

site and is part of an initiative

to aid the species’ recovery

following last summer’s

bushfire disaster. If successful,

Forktree will be the northern-

most habitat for glossy

black-cockatoos on the SA

mainland, providing a lifeline

for these threatened birds.


Sowing the seed

Funding supportApplications are now open for round two of our sponsorship grants. Australian scientists, community organisations and individuals developing suitable projects in Australia or overseas are welcome to apply. Applications close 30 November. For more information and full criteria go to the Society page at the AG website:

australiangeographic.com.au/society

Tim Jarvis at work

on Forktree, rewilding

former farmland with

native species.

Rediscovering historic meteorological documents offers vital insight to our increasingly erratic modern weather patterns.

STORY BY CAITLIN HOWLETT


Unearthing Australia’s climate history

“A most beautiful, and as far as South Australia is concerned, a rare phenomenon, was witnessed here last Thursday morning. At day break, and until after noon. Mount Lofty and the neighbouring mountains were seen

covered with snow. The effect was most striking. It would seem as though we had exchanged, during the night, our own mountains for those of Switzerland.”

– Adelaide Independent and Cabinet of Amusement, 12 August 1841.

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By looking at early weather data and documented records,

climate researchers have revealed that snow was a regular feature

of the southern Australian climate in the 1800s, and heatwaves

weren’t nearly as frequent as they are today. The main painting

here, by J. Hitchen, depicts a heavy snowfall on the Adelaide Hills

in 1841, which was reported in a local newspaper. The photo below

shows a snowball fi ght in front of Mount Loft y House on Mount

Loft y Summit Road in Crafers, 13km from Adelaide, in 1905.

FEW PEOPLE REALISE that snow was once a common occurrence for southern Australia’s climate.

Historical records help document impacts of past weather extremes such as heatwaves, fl oods, droughts and even snow. Now scientists are using these fas-

cinating resources to uncover more about Australia’s climate history and also shed light on modern severe weather events. A clearer understanding of Australia’s climatic past lies buried in colonial-era records and documents such as weather journals and ships’ logs, as well as photographs, old newspapers, sketches and paintings. And yet it’s estimated that only half of all the old weather diaries available globally have been analysed. Even once a record is rediscovered, there’s still the matter of transferring all the handwritten data into digital format, which makes it easier to access for research purposes. Computers have trouble reading cursive numbers and words, especially in tabulated formats like those used for meteorological observations, so this research relies on people. And that’s where citizen scientists can really help – by transcribing centuries-old handwriting in the pages of historical weather diaries.

CLIMATE SCIENTIST DR JOËLLE GERGIS, senior lecturerin climate science and director of Climate History Australia at the Australian National University, Canberra,

is using historical records to reconstruct the country’s climate variability and extremes.

climate once experienced snow regularly and that heatwaves are now occurring more often. Climate History Australia is currently rolling out citizen science projects across Australia to help piece together more of Australia’s old weather records. Recent efforts have focused on closing an eight-year gap in Adelaide’s daily weather record from 1848 to 1856. Volunteers have digitised more than 4000 days’ worth of data from weather diaries kept at the Adelaide Surveyor General’s Office, which researchers have now begun to analyse.

It was a combination of 15 years of dedicated research and pure luck that led to the discovery of the weather journals in Adelaide. Professor Rob Allan, head of the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative and an Australian based at the UK Met Office, was the first to locate them through an online search of the National Archives of Australia. Rob immediately understood the immense value and significance of these records, and asked the citizen science unit of the Australian Meteorological Association to photograph them. Researchers then uploaded pages of the weather journals online, in the hope they’d attract volunteers to help transcribe them. P

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To help build a picture of 19th-century

weather events and patterns,

Dr Joëlle Gergis consults old Australian

newspapers in the State Library of

Victoria, Melbourne, in search of past

weather reports and news items.

“Australia is no stranger to extreme weather and climate – from drought to bushfires, heatwaves and floods. We need to look at the past to better understand the future,” Joëlle explains. “Climate change is making extreme weather events worse than they were in the past because they are now occurring in the background of a climate that is 1°C warmer than it was in the past. The question is, how will a hotter climate impact the extremes we will face in the future?”

Early weather records provide scientists with much detail about Australia’s climate before the Bureau of Meteorology’s official records began in the early 1900s. “While about 100 years of data is pretty good, given that Australia’s climate is prone to large swings in things like temperature and rainfall, hav-ing a longer daily record is really helpful for understanding long-term changes in our weather,” says Dr Linden Ashcroft, a climate history researcher at the University of Melbourne. “Information from natural data sources like tree rings and ice cores tells us about year-to-year and decade-to-decade changes in our climate. But with daily weather records, we can start to understand the specific conditions that occurred.

“This means we can learn more about individual extreme events like heatwaves and storms – events that cause a lot of damage and that are changing as the planet continues to warm.”

Most information about the world’s climate before the 1900s currently comes from Northern Hemisphere sources. Having historical weather data for Australia would allow scientists to better understand changes specific to the Southern Hemisphere.

Research published in June by the Climate History Australia team presented the longest daily temperature record for Australia back to 1838. It revealed the southern Australian

“We need to look at

the past to better

understand the future.”


“WE TEND TO think science was inex-

act 175 years ago. In mete-orology, that’s not always the case,” says Mac Benoy, the Australian Meteoro-logical Association’s citizen science project manager. “Some of the fi rst formal weather observations in British colonies were carried out by the Royal Engineers who were central to the functioning of many British outposts. For example, the Adelaide Survey Department, under the guidance of Royal Engineer Colonel Edward Charles Frome, began formal recordings in 1839 – most likely acting on a memoran-dum from the UK Colonial Secretary. The responsi-bility for Adelaide’s daily weather observations was then passed on to Arthur Henry Freeling from 1849. Trained as surveyors, Frome and Freeling understood

the need for accuracy, with trained observers using standard instruments and taking exact readings at specifi ed times. This explains why these old weather records are oft en so consistent and metic-ulous.” Dr Linden Ashcroft adds that while observa-tions in these old records are useful, it’s important to note they weren’t taken using the standard method now used by the Bureau of Meteorology. “So we have to be careful before doing detailed scientifi c analysis,” she says. “For example, the thermometers and barometers used were oft en big, elaborate instru-ments prone to accuracy issues over time as the wood they were made from expanded. The World Mete-orological Organization has very clear guidelines now on how and where weather stations should be set up, but these guidelines didn’t exist in the 1800s. This can also have a big impact on the accuracy of historical weather data, but we can account for all of those fac-tors when we’re analysing it in the present day.”

The test of timeHistoric science can be just as

meticulous as its modern counterpart.

AUSTRALIA’S CLIMATE CITIZEN SCIENCE projects are a regional eff ort within the ongoing global program of ACRE. Data rescue projects are underway around the

globe, but most are only able to secure funding for a few years at a time. Many have chosen to use the popular citizen science platform Zooniverse.

Earlier this year, Rainfall Rescue in the UK collated 65,000 pages by 16,000 volunteers, producing 5.25 million measure-ments covering the years 1677–1960. Southern Weather Discov-ery is working with both volunteers and Microsoft AI for Earth to build a library to help teach computers how to transcribe weather records from New Zealand, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

“It’s hard to know for sure, but probably only half of the known historical weather observations have been digitised so far, and the world loses about 500,000 old records each day,” Rob says. “While most people tend to think of weather observations as being land-based, it’s important to note that a lot of this historical data coming from the colonial period comes from marine-based ship logs. This kind of data can

The Adelaide Surveyor General’s weather folios, which begin in

1843, have been transcribed this year by a citizen science project

in which volunteers digitise detailed handwritten daily records

and observations into searchable online historical weather data.

Adelaide’s two mid-19th-century Surveyors

General (L–R) Colonel Edward Charles Frome

and Sir Arthur Freeling.

Weather monitoring equipment in the Adelaide

Observatory grounds

in 1880.


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be considered really valuable given that 71 per cent of our planet is oceans.” The ACRE-led international effort has made a small dent in this, but, Rob says, there is much more to do.

“We are working to streamline the flow of the data we have rescued from its recovery to digitisation to analysis and mod-elling,” he explains. “And we, of course, share the data with anyone who wants it.”

He says citizen science is the area that has the most potential for further growth in historical climatology and he’s optimistic this will be boosted in the near future by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Of the two citizen science projects that Climate History Australia is presently working on, one is exploring documents from the Adelaide Surveyor General’s Office from 1843 to 1856. The other is investigating Perth Observatory records from 1880 to 1900.

Wendy Howe has been volunteering on both. “One of the most enjoyable aspects is reading about the very florid, formal and evocative weather descriptions,” she says.

Wendy became so fascinated by the work that she has also helped the researchers collate further information. In the State Library of Western Australia’s catalogue, she found a photo of Government Astronomers Cooke and Curlewis, who made the Perth records she’s helping to transcribe.

“I can easily imagine these proud, professional men diligently recording weather data in their very formal writing style,” she says, pointing to the photo. “See how important they look!”

Joëlle says the location of the Perth records is particularly important because south-western WA is one of the most sen-sitive regions to climate change.

“It is located in the path of the southern storm track, which is starting to shift south towards Antarctica. This has reduced rainfall in the region, which has led to the need for desali-nation plants to secure the city’s water supply during periods of drought,” she says. “What is amazing about the Perth Observatory journals is that our initial inventory suggests it is a complete daily record, which is quite a rare find. It’s phenomenal that in 20 years, only one day is missing.”

A note at the bottom of the journal explains that an observer was sick on that particular day, so no observations were made. The note went on to record that “this is no excuse and other arrangements will be made in future”.

“One of things I appreciate most about working with his-torical weather data is just how dedicated the observers were to their task,” Linden says. “Most historical weather observations don’t come from trained scientists. They are from farmers, engineers, astronomers, telegraph operators or ministers – people who were interested in the weather and climate of their new place. “This kind of dedication to the task inspires me to make the most of their efforts and ensure we can use this past information to prepare us for the future.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION or to find out how to become involved

in these citizen science projects, visit: climatehistory.com.au

AG

“Our initial inventory suggests

it is a complete daily record,

which is quite a rare find.”

Sydney-based citizen science volunteer Wendy

Howe has gone beyond the

initial transcribing of old

records to engage in further

research work.

Chas Yeates, W. Earnest

Cooke, Harold B. Curlewis,

H.M. Joslun and R.B. Aclaud

(L–R), pictured in 1900,

took observations at the

Old Observatory, Perth,

between 1880 and 1900.

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STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT PORTELLI

Underwater photography is helping shed light on Australia’s mysterious seadragons.

MASTERS OF DISGUISE


With its plant-like appendages,

a leafy seadragon cleverly

blends in with vegetation in shallow

water along the SA coastline.

BECAUSE I GREW UP IN SYDNEY, the ocean was always an intrinsic part of my life. But it wasn’t until I learnt to scuba dive in my late teens that I really began to appreciate how Australia’s ocean waters are home to so many creatures found nowhere else

in the world. Among the most spectacular are the seadragons, a group of remarkable fish that have fascinated me since I first heard of them about 25 years ago. Now I’m committed to learning as much as I can about these intriguing animals and I’m using my images to help protect them.

SEADRAGONS BELONG TO the family Syngnathidae. There are just three species of seadragon and they only occur in the temperate waters of the Great Southern Reef (GSR), which

spans Australia’s southern coasts (see AG 139), covering some 71,000sq.km along roughly half of the continent’s land mass from New South Wales to Western Australia. A biodiversity hotspot largely dependent on kelp forests and other large seaweeds, the GSR supports diverse endemic species in nutrient-rich waters.

The three seadragon species are visually distinct. The weedy (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) and leafy (Phycodurus eques) seadragons are better known than the third, the ruby seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea), which was only recently discovered and can be identified by its bright red colour. The weedy, also known as the common, is easily distinguished from the leafy by its small, less-ornate fins – a long dorsal one low on its back and a pectoral fin located up on its neck – that oscillate rapidly to provide propulsion through the water. Situated close to its tail, the dorsal fin provides forward movement. The pectoral fin allows the fish to steer and change direction.

All seadragons feed on small, shrimp-like crustaceans, their favourites being the mysids, or sea lice, which swim in swarms. Because they lack a true stomach, seadragons have no capacity for food storage and so need to eat continuously. Their eyes move independently of each other, allowing them to focus on objects located just beyond their pipe-like snouts. This means they can target tiny crustaceans in close proximity. Mysids are fast-moving, so the nearer a seadragon can get, the better its chance of catching one.

Adult leafy seadragons have an average length of 35cm, while the weedy grows up to about 45cm. It’s not known how long these fish live in the wild but in captivity they have survived for as long as nine years, almost twice as long as seahorses.

Weedy seadragons breed during the warmer months, from October to late February. But they have more than one breeding period because they’ve been seen with eggs at other times of the year. Leafy seadragons begin pairing up in September and a first brood of eggs is seen by October or November. A second brood is common and can occur in late December or January.

A brood takes up to eight weeks to hatch, and, as for seahorses, incubation is the sole responsibility of the male: the eggs are

fertilised as they’re transferred from the female to the male. Each brood consists of about 250 eggs, which the male carries along a spongy patch on the underside of his tail. Until it’s ready to hatch, each egg is housed in an individual cup-like indentation in this pulpy area, which has increased blood flow to enrich the eggs during incubation.

The eggs are brightly coloured and vary in weedy seadragons from pink to dark purple – they’re pinkish-orange in the leafy. Their hatching is staggered and assisted by the male who shakes his tail or rubs it over seaweed and seagrass to encourage the hatchlings, each just 4–7mm, to emerge.

The tiny seadragons are then independent and on their own, relying on camouflage for protection until fully grown. Newly hatched seadragons live at first off the last of their yolk sacs, which initially remain attached to them. Then they hunt tiny zooplankton until their snouts become large enough to take juvenile mysids.

Adult seadragons have few known predators. Most are successfully duped by the seadragons’ sophisticated camouflage, and any would-be predators are usually deterred by the tough bony plates under a seadragon’s skin.


A leafy seadragon (above) has eyes that move independently of

each other, which allows them to focus up close on fast-moving prey.

This weedy seadragon (below) hovers above a Posidonia seagrass

meadow at Rapid Bay, SA.

Weedy and leafy seadragons inhabit shallow water, 5–25m deep, where their habitat varies from seagrass meadows to underwater forests of kelp and other seaweed. They often occur in vegetation near long jetties teeming with other marine life.

As well as having those leaf-like appendages that enable them to blend in among seaweed and seagrasses, they can also grad-ually change colour to match their surroundings. To complete their clever subterfuge, they mimic the swaying movements of the marine vegetation around them.

IN 1996 A COALITION of researchers and community organisations established DragonSearch to collect data on wild seadragon populations across Australia. The work and long-term

commitment of the program’s South Australia project manager, Tony Flaherty, several project officers, and marine scientist Janine Baker, together with the efforts of the diving community across the country, has led to better understanding of where seadragons occur and more accurate estimates of their population numbers. It has also revealed key insights into the biology (such as breeding times), habitat and behaviour of these remarkable fish.

During the late 1990s, before seadragons and their relatives became formally protected under SA government legislation in 2006, a code of conduct for diving with the fish was devel-oped in conjunction with community groups. This was recently updated to recognise the increasing numbers of interactions between the fragile creatures and divers.

A seven-year monitoring program by DragonSearch divers and SA project managers identified and tracked individual seadragons at one of the popular diving locations in SA, but other research is ongoing. Using the online citizen science platform iNaturalist, curated by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, contributors are now also being encouraged to submit seadragon photos. Researchers are using these to collect data about seadragons’ geographic locations, frequency and relative population sizes.

“The aim of the long-term research is to identify site- association of seadragons, including the identification and monitoring of individuals, and to highlight sites suitable for increased protection and management of potential impacts,” Janine explains.


A male weedy seadragon

carries and incubates a brood

of up to 250 eggs along a spongy

patch on the underside of his tail.

The eggs are fertilised as

they’re transferred from

the female to the male.

“Our long-term work in SA aims to also create a sense of engagement and ownership in the community.”

Recognising seadragon individuals is not easy. Researchers closely examine the animals’ faces, snouts, heads and bodies to identify them. Variations in facial and body patterns, unique markings and distinctive features such as missing tails or append-ages also help. Seadragon identification work has been underway in SA since 1999, and the results have been enormously benefi-cial in increasing knowledge about seadragon biology and those population dynamics.

Advances in image-matching technologies are now also being used for seadragon identification, including a new program called SeadragonSearch, which uses software from Wild Me, a US-based not-for-profit company that supports citizen science. Its Wildbook software allows seadragon researchers to automate the matching process by using artificial intelligence to increase the speed and accuracy with which they can analyse images sub-mitted by divers. This allows for more effective monitoring of seadragon populations.

THE LEAFY SEADRAGON is SA’s state marine emblem and a must-see for anyone diving in the state. It has also become a powerful symbol for the need for conservation

of SA coastal habitats and for Australia’s ocean environments in general. The flipside of this high exposure is that poaching has become a major issue in some areas, despite the seadragons’ protected status. As with many other marine species, seadragons are also facing the triple threat of climate change, pollution and habitat destruction, the latter being a particular problem. Their success as a species has relied heavily on the availability of special- ised habitats that enable them to blend in, such as forests of kelp and other seaweeds, and seagrass beds. But these are now under pressure from coastal development and climate change, and the consequences for seadragons are potentially catastrophic.

Marine ecologist John Turnbull is a research officer with the Underwater Research Group of NSW, a scuba diving club and

community organisation dedicated to furthering underwater exploration and sharing information about Australia’s marine ecosystems through citizen science. A key project is weedy seadragon monitoring run in collaboration with researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Sydney Institute of Marine Science. The project relies on images taken by citizen scientists at dive sites in NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania.

John and his team encourage divers and underwater photog-raphers to return to the same sites regularly and photograph the same individuals over several years. They also educate divers on how to shoot photos in ways that are most useful for comparing data. Each new seadragon photograph is analysed and added to an image database. “This information becomes invaluable and allows scientists to extend the reach of their research,” John says.

For Dr David Booth, a UTS marine ecology professor, the weedy seadragon program is critical in helping researchers better understand the species, its behaviours, and habitats. He says that building this knowledge will help ensure the conservation of these marine animals: “Research is looking at genetics and environmental effects around southern Australia, but the fragility of the species and their retreating habitat is what concerns many scientists.” With a suspected decline in population sizes, David says it’s vital to gather as much information as possible now.

Despite these indications of a potential reduction in seadragon numbers, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species changed the status of weedy seadragons from near threatened to least concern in their most recent assessment. David believes the IUCN assessment needs urgent updating. And that, he adds, makes the current suite of citizen science projects vital.

“This research and the distribution of accurate information is important to convince governments and local councils to support efforts to ensure the survival of the species and look at habitat protection plans.”


TO SEE more of Scott’s stunning seadragon images, go to:

australiangeographic.com.au/159

A diver observes a leafy seadragon in

its natural habitat. In one citizen science

project, participants dive the same sites

regularly to record seadragon sightings.

Poaching has

become a major

issue in some areas,

despite their

protected status.

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Exhibition open now !Don’t miss the chance to see these amazing images on display.

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STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY QUENTIN CHESTER

Indigenous rangers, scientists, conservationists and pastoralists are working together to ensure the Kimberley

remains one of the world’s great wildlife havens.


THE LAST GREAT WILDERNESS


Danggu Geikie Gorge appears placid late in

the Dry. But the abrupt colour change on its

limestone flanks betrays the high-water mark

of the mighty Fitzroy River at peak flow.

Protecting the river’s natural and cultural vigour is

among the region’s most pressing challenges.

Widespread across the Kimberley,

the region’s totemic boab tree is at

its most statuesque amid the rugged

limestone ridges of the Oscar Range.

Dawn light is cast across

spinifex-clad Fitzroy Bluff in the heart of the

Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges. With summits

nudging 1000m, this prodigious sandstone

arc spans more than 550km, effectively

cradling the entire Kimberley plateau.


WE’RE BARELY A METRE off the ground when our helicopter lurches and drops from a cliff top into the valley below. Bluff s of ochre sandstone whoosh by the open passenger door. Ahead, a sweep of savan-

nah grassland reaches to the horizon. We’re aloft on the edge of Bunuba country, whirring along the Fitzroy River as it twists down gorges and tree-fl anked channels through the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges (formerly the King Leopold Ranges).

This is the famously huge Kimberley plateau, in north-western Australia. There’s no simple way to gauge the breadth of a landscape of this scale. But taking to the skies is a good start. From a chopper, the plateau’s epic, fortress-like character is laid bare. Exposed is a potent mix of habitats, and it’s plain to see how this frontier is refuge for so many distinctive plants and animals. From up here another prospect looms – the daunting task of managing a place six times the size of Tasmania and in many parts just as rugged.

No surprise then that helicopters play a starring role. “They’re our workhorses,” says fi eld ecologist Jamie Dunlop in a proper English accent through the chopper’s headset. “We use them to access survey sites that would be otherwise impossible to reach. They’re also essential to everything from fi re management to our annual croc census.” Right on cue Jamie, a suburban Londoner who embraced the wilds of Australia to pursue a life in science, points out two freshwater crocodiles basking on the banks of the Fitzroy below. Jamie’s plied his trade as an ecologist across the country, but for him the Kimberley’s outsized charms have been hard to match.

It might look like these upper reaches of the Fitzroy on the conservation property Mornington Sanctuary are a timeless scene of primeval splendour. Yet they are among the most carefully curated landscapes in the Kimberley. Since 2001 Jamie’s employer, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), has recast the fate of this former cattle property (see Held in Reserve, AG 94). Together with the lateraddition of neighbouring Marion Downs, it’s a 6000sq.km expanse now overseen with a single-mindedgoal: restoring the naturalorder to bolster the survivalof native wildlife. Many of the beneficiaries are

pocket-sized marsupials and native rodents, plus small birds such as the endangered Gouldian fi nch and purple-crowned fairy-wren – not the kind of creatures you spot from a chopper. Yet one of the AWC’s biggest initiatives to help them thrive is writ large across the landscape.

FROM ABOVE, MORNINGTON appears as a mix of russet-brown burnt areas inter-spersed with swathes of unburnt woodland

and spinifex. This mottling is a legacy of the AWC’s EcoFire program, which aims to mimic a traditional Aboriginal approach to caring for country by using a patchwork of small burns early in the dry season. This helps secure areas of old-growth vegetation that are crucial for wildlife, as well as curbing the spread of large, devastating bushfi res late in the season.

The gains from this strategy, for both con-servation and pastoralism, have prompted Mornington’s neighbours to join the fray. EcoFire is now used across 11 properties span-ning 30,000sq.km, making it the nation’s largest

privately operated fi re management program. As well as deploying fi re crews on the

Jamie Dunlop checks

a camera at Roses

Pool in Mornington

Sanctuary, a monitoring

site for the endangered

northern quoll.

The Gouldian fi nch

benefi ts from AWC fi re

management practices

that help safeguard its

feeding habitat.

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ground, the annual scheme sees more than 50,000 incendiaries dropped by helicopters to initiate targeted burns. Since 2007 this eff ort has more than halved the number of highly destructive hot, late-season bushfi res on the AWC’s Kimberley properties.

Ongoing ecological checks help shape the pattern and sched-ule of these prescribed burns. Ecologists conduct a range of detailed fauna and plant surveys across more than 50 sites, to keep a fi nger on the biodiversity pulse. “The idea is to main-tain our standard monitoring to watch the trends and detect any changes,” explains Dr Karen Young, one of Mornington’s wildlife ecologists.

It’s not just raging late-season fi res that pose a conservation risk. Other core threats are the damage caused by large, intro-duced herbivores such as cattle, donkeys and horses, plus the toll on native animals captured by feral cats. Research reveals, Karen notes, that these stresses can interact to compound the damage. Cats, for example, can exploit high-intensity fi re scars to maximise their hunting success. There are other challenges too – feral pigs, invasive weeds, cane toads and the upheavals of climate change are all fraying the region’s natural resilience.

Against this backdrop, Karen’s four-year stint at Mornington has been more than just a commitment to science: “Living and working in a remote place, you respond to the landscape and seasons – you know it on a personal level.” As reports continueto disclose a rising tally of environmental loss throughout

northern Australia, the Kimberley’s status as a wildlife bastion grows stronger by the year. “When it comes to conservation in Australia, it’s the jewel in the crown,” Karen says. “The north-west is one of the last refuges for species like the golden bandicoot and northern quoll. This is the only part of mainland Australia that hasn’t had any mammal extinctions. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe; the region faces the same pressures that have caused species to decline elsewhere.”

As well as Mornington showcasing the AWC’s stewardship fl air, the skills honed here are being shared across the region. The AWC collaborates with Indigenous groups, pastoralists and government agencies to help tend to a staggering 43,000sq.km of the Kimberley. And they’re not alone.

Environs Kimberley, Bush Heritage Australia, World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy are among other not-for-profi t organisations supporting environmental eff orts throughout the region. Yet research, generous benefaction and well-worded policy only go so far. To get the job done you need people on the ground and communities out bush. In this supremely

Many of the benefi ciaries are pocket-sized marsupials and native

rodents, plus small birds.

The Fitzroy River carves its way through

the Wunaamin Miliwundi

Ranges before breaking

free of the high country

and swinging westward

to King Sound.

Helicopters are indispensable for

conservation in the

region – for wildlife

surveys, fi re management,

and accessing the

stone country in the

north-west.


remote corner of the continent, the future ultimately rests with the power of locals who know their country best.

Downstream of Mornington Sanctuary, the Fitzroy River breaks free from the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges. Before swinging westward to King Sound, it traverses a landscape of open plains and ancient limestone ranges, including the dra-matic Danggu Geikie Gorge. In late 2015 the Bunuba people’s 15-year fight ended when they finally secured Native Title over 6500sq.km of this expanse.

Conservation gains aside, the most profound change wrought across the Kimberley during the past two decades has been the granting of Native Title claims over large tracts of traditional country. Working with government, the Kimberley Land Council and its partners have also helped many claimant groups secure Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs). Together, at least seven major IPAs encompass 60 per cent of the entire region, including the outstanding biodiversity strongholds in the far north-west.

The formal recognition of Indigenous rights to manage country has renewed a push to work in the landscape, as a way to uphold tradition and build a future for communities. Among the Bunuba people, as with other groups, that momentum drove a long process of coming together to map out priorities. The Jalangurru Muwayi Bunuba Healthy Country Plan details tasks such as managing fire and wildlife, as well as responsibil-ities for protecting important cultural areas and values.

FOR YOUNG BUNUBA RANGERS based at Fitzroy Crossing, including Jonil Marr and Danielle Brooking, the work strengthens ties to landscape and also with elders and tra-

ditions. “I like going out on country, looking after country, protecting our sacred sites and our paintings and all that,” Jonil says. More than 100 Indigenous rangers – both men and women – now work across the Kimberley to restore traditional burning practices, safeguard culturally significant wildlife and manage threats such as weeds and feral species. Jobs with these programs are highly prized. “Lots of schoolkids really look up to being a ranger in the future,” Danielle says.

Conservation organisation Bush Heritage Australia and the Broome-based advocacy group Environs Kimberley (EK) have a long association working with this community and continue to help facilitate the Healthy Country Plan, which guides rangers in making decisions on country. As well as the township of Fitzroy Crossing, a busy stretch of the Great Northern Highway, major pastoral businesses nearby and some of the busiest parks in the region, the Bunuba people have a lot on their doorstep. Of major importance is maintaining the natural and cultural integrity of the Fitzroy River itself.

In big wet-season years this river is Australia’s most potent, with estimated flows of about 30,000 cubic metres per second, but in drought years it can barely flow. During recent decades a range of proposals to dam the river and exploit its flows have been mooted. The latest involves a large-scale irrigation scheme

The rugged north-

west is home to a range

of compact macropods,

including this species,

the usually elusive

monjon, Australia’s

smallest rock-wallaby.

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to grow fodder crops for cattle on Fossil Downs, Liveringa and Nerrima, all pastoral properties owned by mining magnate Gina Rinehart.

EK was established in 1996 to support Bunuba and other traditional owners in their quest for permanent protections for the river. It claims a buff er zone is needed and that by securing 9 per cent of the catchment almost 90 per cent of the river’s channels and wet-lands could be protected from the impacts of irrigation, dams and mining. Parallel with this campaign history, EK has been engaged in on-ground practical projects with Indigenous ranger groups for more than a decade. Program manager Dr Malcolm Lindsay stresses these are collaborative eff orts from beginning to end. “We are research partners and also play a bit of a brokering role,” he says.

“We keep an eye on funding and if a government grant comes up that f its with the needs of a ranger group then we can help with the application. In the end, though, they’re the ones making the decisions. The important thing is recognising the power of the established governance system.”

EK maintains strong ties to the Bunuba rangers and, closer to Broome, with the Yawuru commu-nity. To the south they work alongside rangers from the Karajarri Traditional Lands Association whose country extends from the upper reaches of Eighty Mile Beach inland into the Great Sandy Desert.

Since 2011 EK has also partnered with the Bardi Jawi and Nyul Nyul rangers to care for the endangered monsoon vine thickets dotting the coastal dunes of the Dampier Peninsula. Local communities share an intimate understanding of these rainforest pockets as nurturing spaces, off ering food, water, timber and medicine, as well as being places of ceremony and law. Right across the Kimberley, opportunities to respect and sustain this kind of inheritance are at least as important as any ecological reckoning. “Here, cultural knowl-edge is integral to conservation,” Malcolm says.

Head east from the Dampier Peninsula and these opportunities multiply spectacularly.

Although scarcely known to the out-side world, the rugged north-west coast

and hinterlands are among Australia’s most robust wildlife realms. Since 2011 Bush Heri-tage has maintained a pioneering partnership with the Wunambal Gaambera

Although scarcely known to the outside world, the rugged north-west coast and hinterlands are

among Australia’s most robust wildlife realms.

The black-fronted dotterel is a wader found

Australia-wide that

forages for insects and

molluscs on the edges of

freshwater lagoons and

waterways, including

those of the Kimberley.

As waterholes in Windjana Gorge shrink

during the dry season,

dozens of freshwater

crocodiles congregate

on prime basking spots

at the water’s edge.

Danielle Brooking (at left ) and

Jonil Marr are among some

30 Bunuba rangers who work in

the fi eld alongside Bush Heritage’s

Lachie Clark on landscape and

cultural management projects.

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1 Cape Leveque

2 Windjana Gorge NP

3 Danguu Geikie

Gorge NP

4 Dalmanyi (Bell Gorge)

5 Mitchell Plateau

6 Kalumburu

7 Purnululu NP

8 Lake Argyle

9 Broome Bird

Observatory

10 Wuuyuru

(Bigge Island)

EVEN FOR A CONTINENT replete with

wonders, the Kimberley is an extraor-

dinary area. It endures among the world’s

most imposing strongholds of Indigenous

culture and unbridled natural diversity.

At twice the size of Victoria, the region

is famously expansive. But size alone

can’t account for the impact of the place.

Rather, it’s a potent mix of remoteness,

antiquity, mercurial seasons and rugged,

mostly inaccessible, terrain that powers

its mystique as a land apart.

It’s home to Western Australia’s only

rainforests, the country’s most intricate

and island-rich shoreline, arguably the

world’s greatest repository of ancient

rock art and a brace of plant and

animal species found nowhere else. In

the resilience of its Indigenous communi-

ties, along with the Kimberley’s daunting

natural defences, lie the foundations of a

future like no other region.

Places of interest:

PROTECTING THE KIMBERLEY

Carved by the Lennard

River, Windjana Gorge is

among the deepest and

most accessible gorges

slicing through the

Napier Range.

FACTCovering 423,517sq.km,

the Kimberley region is

three times the size

of England.


Jilirr is one of dozens

of secluded bays and

beaches skirting the

Dampier Peninsula.

The shack here was used

by filmmaker Warwick

Thornton for his SBS

documentary The Beach.

With wry humour, Bundy Djalgarda guides

visitors to Cape Leveque

through the coastal

bush and local lore of

Bardi culture.

people. Their “living home” is Uunguu, a 25,000sq.km arc of country from Kalumburu to Prince Regent NP and includes Punami Uunpuu (formerly Mitchell Falls). Bush Heritage assists Uunguu rangers with a range of projects including targeted fire management to protect significant rainforest pockets.

TO THE SOUTH LIES the equally imposing sea and land country of the Dambimangari community. It’s a “gob-smackingly beautiful” property supporting “an amazing

suite of biodiversity,” says Peter McKay, the north-west regional operations manager of the AWC. In 2017 the AWC entered into a groundbreaking partnership in which the community receives a set fee plus AWC expertise in support of Dambimangari’s Healthy Country Plan. In return, the AWC is able to help shore up the future for a host of threatened species, such as the northern quoll, golden-backed tree-rat and Kimberley brush-tailed phascogale.

Based on this partnership success, the Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation and the AWC recently agreed to a similar collabo-ration. Spanning the heartland of Kimberley plateau country, the Wilinggin IPA is one of the region’s largest and most complex. As well as supporting Wilinggin rangers with land management and wildlife projects, AWC’s assistance with ‘right way’ burning programs are pivotal for habitat health and harnessing income for Wilinggin communities from the sale of carbon credits.

Peter admits these are ambitious partnerships. Aside from logistical challenges, the AWC will need to embrace a new level of consultation with the diverse groups of Indigenous leadership who maintain authority over the plateau. But it’s a big picture

worth conjuring. If you consider the area’s national parks and other protected natural locations such as the IPAs and AWC properties, Peter says, this would be one of the world’s largest conservation areas. “When you think about it like that it’s kind of inspiring stuff,” he says.

Coming together to share access to landscape, Indigenous knowledge and practical science offers the region a future that echoes the values of traditional owners. The Native Title hold-ers here are uniquely placed to shape their own conservation economy. For that to sustain entire communities, many believe it has to broaden beyond a focus on wildlife and ecology. The goal is more jobs on country that strengthen language and culture. That means more Indigenous-led businesses, be they in agriculture, hospitality, art or tourism.

The Dampier Peninsula is like nowhere else in the Kimberley. Spanning nearly 10,000sq.km, it is a subtle sprawl of rolling savannah woodland, utterly different from the plateau’s craggy redoubts. The region’s signature is its vivid red Pindan soil, which defines the character of the place, from its unique plant

It’s a “gobsmackingly beautiful” property supporting “an amazing

suite of biodiversity”.


communities to the startling shoreline cliff s glowing crimson at sundown.

The Bardi-Jawi people are custodians of the peninsula’s apex. They’re saltwater people with a Healthy Country Plan buoyed by an active team of local rangers. The peninsula is also a visitor hotspot, boasting the highest density of Indigenous-owned tour-ism in Australia. With an enticing array of beaches and campsites, bush resorts, whale watching, pearl farms and cultural tours, the region attracts almost 40,000 visitors a year.

Most travellers arrive via Cape Leveque Road, the notoriously rough gutter of a track that barrels 200km north from Broome. A $65 million proj-ect to seal the remaining 90km of the road is due for completion by 2021. It is welcomed by many as a boost for tourism and securing safe, year-round access to the peninsula for locals.

Others are concerned that, if not prop-erly managed, the estimated 40 per cent increase in visitation will come at a cost to the environment and local communities.

Cape Leveque, at the tip of the peninsula, is home to Kooljaman, a popular community-owned wilderness camp.

Bardi man Bundy Djalgarda has been guid-ing cultural tours into the bush here for a decade. “It’s a good offi ce,” he says with a

smile. “And I get to help people understand more about the land and how Aboriginal people relate to it, their stories and their connection.”

Many of his relatives and family are engaged in tourism or work as rangers: “It means you got work on country and can look after signifi cant sites,”he says. “We also teach in schools – teaching songs and dance and ceremonies.”

To join Bundy on an afternoon stroll through Cape Leveque’s vine thickets is to enter a world where nature, language, family and seasons meld into one. He speaks swiftly in a quiet voice. Along the way he teases us with a sly question or two, an invitation to start reading the signs all around. A single fl ower, bird call or snake track in the sand kicks off another story, each with a link to ancestors or heralding a message out of nature’s calendar when the fi shing’s good or fruit is ready for harvest.

This session is yet another small reminder of what’s at stake in the Kimberley. Here there’s a font of knowl-edge – the gift of wisdom woven within a living ecology.

On the way back to camp, Bundy stops by a gubinge tree to show us its shrivelled fruit. This wasn’t about time-honoured lore but an omen, a warning of the present and our fal-tering climate. “If this tree could talk he’d tell us. He’d say things are diff erent,” Bundy says, with a sweep of his hand across the horizon. “He’d tell us all this is changing.” AG

Cape Leveque’s 13m-tall

lighthouse has

been aiding

vessels navigate

the Dampier

Peninsula to

enter King Sound

since 1911.

Cape Leveque’s ocean shoreline is one of

Australia’s defi nitive sundown encounters.

The fi ery pindan soil and local sandstone are Dampier

Peninsula hallmarks and the legacy of a long history

of high rainfall and deep weathering.


STORY BY JOHN PICKRELL

Ultimate survivor


The short-beaked echidna is found

from deserts to mountain peaks;

from Tasmania, across the Australian

mainland to southern New Guinea. Its

unique backwards-pointing feet give it

an advantage when digging. Echidnas

also use extended claws on the second

toes of the hind feet to scratch and

groom between the spines.

Australia’s most widespread mammal is one of our least understood. Now, pioneering research is unlocking the enigma of the echidna.

TAHLIA PERRY SHOWS me an extraordinary photograph of an echidna, which is testa-ment to the remarkable resilience of these animals in the face of bushfi res. The picture,submitted to her citizen science project EchidnaCSI, shows an animal with its spines

severed halfway along their length, giving it the appearance of having been trimmed into a fl at-top hairstyle.

“The echidna had this weird thing, where it looked like its spines had been cut, but actually it had been caught in a controlled burn,” explains Tahlia, who is based at the University of Adelaide. “It was a striking image…and our social media went pretty wild.”

Often, rather than attempt to outrun a fi re, echidnas simply burrow into the ground, or conceal themselves inside fallen logs. One of their many unique talents is that they can dig straight down on the spot, disappearing into the dirt in as little as a minute. They then enter a temporary hibernation-like state to conserve energy, and wait for the danger to pass. This ‘torpor’, which is also employed by echidnas in some cooler regions, sees them slow their heart rate, metabolism and temperature – breath-ing in and out as few as three times a minute. On rare occasions they may stay like this for weeks following a fi re, only emerging once their insect prey has returned to the environment.

But the echidna in the image, snapped by citizen scientist Geor-gina Swan following a hazard reduction burn in bush in northern Sydney, clearly hadn’t dug down far enough, and its spines were melted off . Tahlia explains that this might not have been painful for the animal, because the spines, being modifi ed hairs, are not living tissue. Although that particular image was taken in August last year, just before the catastrophic Black Summer fi re season got underway, pictures and reports emerged early this year of echidnas elsewhere with melted spines. In fact, along with wombats, which also take refuge underground, echidnas were some of the most commonly spotted mammal survivors emerging from the ashes of still-smouldering fi regrounds.

Dr Peggy Rismiller, who has studied echidnas for 30 years from her base at the Pelican Lagoon Research and Wildlife Centre on Kangaroo Island (KI), says that when the fi res blazed across the island in December and January, young echidnas were still in their nursery burrows, but during subsequent surveys she saw a number of them emerge unscathed. Adults dig in and manipulate dirt between their spines for insulation, she explains. Almost half of KI ultimately burnt, and, although some echidnas were no doubt killed, Peggy has found quite a few that bear no marks of having been through a fi re, as well as “others whose spines melted because they didn’t dig deep enough, but they have survived and are continuing their normal lives”.

Under more usual fi re conditions, right across Australia echidnas are able to survive better than other mammals. But with the Black Summer fi res “being so intense and burning such a large area, we’re unsure how many have survived”, Tahlia says. Nevertheless, given that the platypus and the echidna – both egg-laying monotremes – are creatures that have been around for tens of millions of years, Peggy isn’t surprised they are deft at navigating natural perils, such as bushfi res.


Monotremes are the “longest surviving” lineage of mammals, she says. “They were around with the dinosaurs and survived through greenhouse eff ects and ice ages, and if you’ve been around that long you know what you are doing.” Found from the wet rainforests of the north, through the arid centre to the alpine uplands of the south-east, the short-beaked echidna is Australia’s most widespread mammal. But perplexingly, its biology was almost completely unknown until about 30 years ago. Since then, populations on KI and Tasmania have been well studied by Peggy and University of Tasmania Associate Professor Stewart Nicol, unlocking many secrets about these enigmatic creatures. However, the echidnas on the Australian mainland have remained stubbornly elusive, something Tahlia is hoping to change.

“OF ALL THE Mammalia yet known, it seems the most extraordinary in its conformation,” English zoologist George Shaw wrote of the platypus in

1799. The echidna’s duck-billed cousin typically takes the crown as the world’s weirdest mammal, but Australia’s ‘spiny anteater’ certainly gives it a run for its money.

“Porcupine-like quills, a beak that’s a bit like a cross between a bird and an anteater, a pouch like a marsupial, legs point-ing in the direction that no other animal’s legs point: they’ve got this very odd combination of features,” says Jack Ashby, who specialises in Australian mammals and is manager of the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology in the UK.

As most people who have encountered them in the wild know, echidnas have excellent defensive measures, not least of which is rolling up into a prickly ball to present a formidable and potentially painful challenge to a hungry dingo or wedge-tailed eagle.

Tahlia Perry runs the EchidnaCSI

project, which is harnessing citizen

scientists to rapidly fi ll in the missing

pieces of the puzzle on these animals.

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“They were around with the dinosaurs and…if you’ve been around that long you know what you are doing.”

This echidna,

photographed halfway

through last year by

citizen scientist Georgina

Swan and uploaded to the

EchidnaCSI app, didn’t dig

down far enough during a

hazard reduction burn in

northern Sydney and had

its spines melted off.

Peggy Rismiller, on KI,

who has been tracking

echidnas in the wild for

three decades, has spent

more time observing

these monotremes than

anyone else in the world.

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CSI

Echidnas vary slightly in appearance

and biology across their huge range.

Tassie echidnas, such as this one, have

dense fur between the spines, which helps

keep them warm during cooler months.


When really spooked, an echidna will dig vertically “by shimmying its forelimbs in a way that clears the dirt under-neath it, allowing it to drill down into the soil, and then use its claws to lock into roots, pebbles, whatever, so it’s completely impossible to pick up”, Jack explains. “They can also move their spines individually, wedging them into cracks or between rocks, so you can’t lever them out, which is an absolutely amazing predator defence.”

Three long-beaked echidna species in New Guinea (see page 73), the short-beaked echidna, and the platypus are the only living monotremes. Long-beaked echidnas were once also present in northern Australia, but were thought to have gone extinct here 20,000 years ago. However, a long-beaked echidna pelt recently rediscovered at the Natural History Museum in London with a label noting it was collected in 1901 in Western Australia’s Kimberley, suggests they may have persisted in low numbers until much more recently (see Wild Australia, AG 122).

The monotreme lineage branched off from the ancestors of marsupials and placentals (the group to which most living mammals, including humans, belong) perhaps as long ago as 180 million years. Echidnas therefore retain some fascinating features that were present in early mammals and inherited from our reptilian ancestors. These include egg-laying and a sprawling gait, with legs held out to the sides, like lizards,

rather than directly underneath the body as they are in other mammals. That’s why platypuses and echidnas appear to waddle when on land, although this doesn’t stop echidnas trundling along at speed when they need to.

Echidnas probably evolved from platypus-like ancestors more than 20 million years ago. Today, monotremes have the lowest metabolic rate and body temperature of the mammals. An echid-nas body temperature typically sits at 31ºC to 33ºC, some 5ºC cooler than humans, although this can fluctuate by 6ºC to 8ºC in a day. In Tasmania, the Australian Alps and other colder parts of its range the species hibernates, at which time its temperature drops to as low as 4ºC.

Echidnas also have many peculiarities all their own, such as the hind feet pointing backwards, for digging, which baffled 19th-century European taxidermists. “Whenever I’m overseas, I go and see if their stuffed echidnas have got their feet pointing the right way,” Tahlia says. “When people were sending echidnas to museums, they didn’t realise the hind feet point backwards so there’s a whole bunch where the feet have been forced around to point forwards.” P

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Echidnas are found in a wider variety of habitats and climates than

any other mammal in Australia. Tasmanian echidnas, such as this one

near Cradle Mountain, enter a hibernation-like state and become

inactive during winter.


Echidna scats such as this hold much information. Citizen scientists

mail them from across Australia to Tahlia Perry for her EchidnaCSI

project, to be analysed for clues on diet, genetics and hormones.

supervisor, Professor Frank Grützner, devised the idea of a citizen science app to which people could upload sightings and photos. The data would help build the first detailed echidna distribution map covering all Australia. “People take photos of echidnas whenever they see them, and the app tracks the date, time and location, making everything as automated as possible,” Tahlia says.

Citizen scientists also collect and mail in echidna poo, which Tahlia is studying to build a database of DNA from various regions and to understand the diet and intestinal microbiome of the animal across its across range. Hormone traces could reveal stress levels and whether an echidna is sexually active or pregnant.

The scientists were unsure how people would react to the idea of hunting for echidna scats but “people love collecting poo”, Tahlia says. So far, the project has exceeded all expectations. In just three years, more than 10,000 sightings have been uploaded and eager participants have mailed in at least 400 poo samples – providing more data than it would have been possible for Tahlia and her colleagues to collect in decades working on their own.

“The public are really our saviours,” Tahlia adds. “People love echidnas and we see the passion for their conservation growing exponentially since the beginning of EchidnaCSI.” Frank’s group was involved in sequencing the platypus genome in 2008 and is currently working on mapping the echidna genome. Other projects are looking at monotreme sex chromosomes, sex-deter-mining genes and applications of the genetics of monotremes to understand and treat human diseases, such as cancer and diabetes.

WHEN PEGGY ARRIVED on KI from Germany in 1988, next to nothing was known of basic echidna biology. A young postdoc researcher who’d completed a PhD

on reptile physiology, she had half a grant to study tiger snakes and half a grant to study echidnas. “I thought it was interesting that I could work on an egg-laying mammal and a live-bearing reptile,” she explains, referring to the fact the young of tiger snakes hatch internally.

Echidnas lay their eggs into a temporary infolding of skin – a ‘pseudo-pouch’ – and Peggy’s first job was to find an egg so her Adelaide University supervisor, Professor Roger Seymour, could study its respiration rate. Peggy had only seen an echidna in a zoo before then. But the challenge of finding

The fact that their limbs are angled out to the sides and they have backwards-pointing feet and long, sickle-like claws, means they have another peculiar physiological trait. “They can reach backwards, around, up and over their backs, so their hind legs can scratch between their shoulders,” Jack says. “It’s very strange to watch; it looks like a complete dislocation.”

After George Shaw scientifically described the short-beaked echidna in 1792, it was another 92 years before anyone realised it was an egg-layer, like the platypus. Peggy says it’s an indication of how difficult echidnas are to study and observe in the wild.

“They are very elusive, secretive, cryptic and not attracted to anything – so basically finding them is being in the right place at the right time,” Peggy says, explaining that just to observe one echidna requires about 300 hours in the field, necessitating a level of tenacity and dedication that few other researchers have been able to muster. Since 1988 Peggy and thousands of volunteers have logged some 10,000–15,000 hours in the field, locating echidnas and attaching small radio transmitters to them to track their movements. Her decades of work have unravelled the secrets of how echidnas mate and reproduce.

THE ECHIDNA CONSERVATION Science Initiative – EchidnaCSI – began in 2017 as a way of collecting data to help understand and conserve echidnas, without having

to spend thousands of hours in the field, says Tahlia, who runs it as part of her PhD. “Echidnas are incredibly difficult to study in the wild: we have surprisingly little data about their populations across Australia,” she explains. Because few people have been prepared to put in the work on the mainland until now, there are huge knowledge gaps about echidna distribution, physiology and ecology. To remedy this, Tahlia and her Adelaide University

An echidna’s beak is formed by almost fused jaws, inside which there is

a long, mobile tongue that’s used to slurp up ants and other insects. It has

small eyes and poor vision, but excellent senses of smell and hearing.

Their limbs are angled out to the sides, they have backwards-pointing feet and long, sickle-like claws.

Continued page 74PH

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1 ELECTRORECEPTION:

Electroreceptive sensors

in platypus bills help them

to fi nd prey under water.

Echidnas have a less sensitive

version of this in their beaks,

which may aid locating ants

and termites in moist soil.

It’s a trait they likely inherited

from platypus-like ancestors.

2 BEAK: As adults, both the

platypus and echidna lack

teeth. Echidnas’ long, narrow

beaks can’t open like the

jaws of other mammals.

The diameter of the mouth is

only about 5mm, limiting the

size of prey they can take.

3 TONGUE: The

Tachyglossus part of

the short-beaked

echidna’s Latin

name means

‘fast tongue’ and

they can fl ick

Weird and wonderful

Two icons of the Aussie bush, the platypus and echidna, have a multitude

of monotreme-specifi c quirks that mark them out as unique among mammals.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANTHONY CALVERT

PLATYPUS

these 18cm-long append-

ages in and out up to 100

times a minute. This helps

them lick up as many as

40,000 ants or termites/day.

4 SPRAWLING GAIT: With

their limbs sticking out at

right angles to their bodies,

the lizard-style gait of the

platypus and echidna is

more akin to crocodiles

and goannas than

other mammals.

5 LEG SPURS: Male

platypuses have

venomous spurs

on their hind

feet, which can

deliver a debilitat-

ing sting. Male and

female echidnas

are also born with

spurs, which females

typically lose in ado-

lescence. Rather than

delivering venom they may

secrete chemicals used for

communication.

6 BACKWARDS FEET:

Echidnas’ hind feet are

twisted around to point

backwards, which helps

them push soil away as

they burrow.

7 NEOCORTEX: The

neocortex, which takes up

80 per cent of the brain in

humans and is linked to per-

sonality and reasoning,

fi lls about 50 per cent

of an echidna brain,

nearly twice the

size of even some of

the most intelligent

mammals. What they

use this for is a complete

mystery.

8 OLFACTORY BULB:

Echidnas have a highly

developed sense of smell,

and are the only animals

with olfactory bulbs so

enlarged in their brains

that they are highly folded.

This suggests smell is of

great importance to them,

perhaps for communication

with other echidnas.

9 STOMACH: Monotreme

stomachs are not the usual

highly acidic environments

that secrete enzymes called

pepsins to break down pro-

teins. This raises intriguing

questions as to how they

can kill viral and bacterial

pathogens in food.

10 CLOACA: Rather than

separate orifi ces for repro-

duction and excretion, the

platypus and echidna have a

single multi-purpose opening

called a cloaca. “Monotreme”is Latin for “single hole”.

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ECHIDNA

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PLATYPUS Ornithorhynchus anatinus

IUCN: Near threatened (listed as endangered in South Australia)

DISTRIBUTION: Down Australia’s eastern seaboard from Cape York to Tasmania

SIZE: 43–50cm in length, 700g–2.4kg in weight

SHORT-BEAKED ECHIDNATachyglossus aculeatus

IUCN: Least concern (the KI subspecies is listed as endangered)

DISTRIBUTION: Found throughout Australia andin some parts of Papua New Guinea

SIZE: 30–45cm in length, 2–6kg in weight

EASTERN LONG-BEAKED ECHIDNA Zaglossus bartoni

IUCN: Vulnerable

DISTRIBUTION: Found across the central mountain ranges of New Guinea

SIZE: 60–100cm in length, up to 17kg in weight

WESTERN LONG-BEAKED ECHIDNA Zaglossus bruijni

IUCN: Critically endangered

DISTRIBUTION: Found in the Vogelkop Peninsula, in the west of Indonesia’s West Papua province

SIZE: 45–77cm in length, up to 16kg in weight

SIR DAVID’S LONG-BEAKED ECHIDNA Zaglossus attenboroughi

IUCN: Critically endangered

DISTRIBUTION: Known from one specimen collected in the Cyclops Mountains in the north of Papua Province in 1961

SIZE: 45cm in length, 5–8kg in weight

11 SEX CHROMOSOMES: All

mammals but monotremes

have two sex chromosomes

(XX in females; XY in males).

Female echidnas have 10X;

males have 5X4Y.

12 POUCH: The echidna

pseudo-pouch, created from

swollen mammary glands,

disappears when

a female is not

sexually active.

13FOUR-HEADED

PENIS: Unique

among mam-

mals, the

echidna penis

has four heads, only two

of which are used in each

mating, swelling to fi t the

female’s dual-branched

reproductive tract.

The two heads alternate

between matings.

The world’s only surviving species of monotreme,

the platypus and four echidnas, are found exclusively

in Australia and New Guinea.

Five living species of monotreme

6

2

MONOTREMES OF THE WORLD

Suborder Platypoda

Platypus

genus Ornithorhynchus

Suborder Tachyglossa

genus Tachyglossus

Short-beaked echidna Sir David’s

long-beaked echidna

Western long-beaked echidna

Eastern long-beaked echidna


genus Zaglossus


and catching one did not deter her. “I love challenges,” she says, and although ending up spending much of her life studying echidnas was an accident, it’s something she’s never regretted. “It was my karma, my good fate.”

At one point in that fi rst year, she and her now partner, Mike McKelvey, who started the Pelican Lagoon Research and Wildlife Centre in the early ’80s, were removing the transmitter from a study subject, when Peggy noticed something odd about the shape of the pseudo-pouch. “So we unrolled her, and there was a young that had just hatched,” she says. “That was sort of my light bulb going off , saying ‘Good grief, what don’t we know about this animal and how many assumptions have been made?’”

Before that, many people had assumed echidnas incubated and hatched their eggs in burrows, as platypuses do. But Peggy discovered they are laid into and hatch in the pseudo-pouch, which is formed when a female’s abdominal muscles draw in her swollen mammary glands to create an infolding of skin. At that point very few other people had observed newly hatched echidnas, so Peggy was gripped with awe and excitement.

“Unrolling that echidna and seeing the young, which looks like a little blob of jelly was the most amazing experience. The body was translucent, the lungs weren’t functioning yet, but you could see the heart,” she says. “We were able to very carefully remove it, weigh and measure it, and that started me on my way to looking at how echidnas reproduce. It’s just been a fantastic journey.”

An echidna egg is about the diameter of an Australian 5c coin, which happens to bear the image of an echidna, and hatchlings only fi ll about one-third the space inside that leathery egg. Eight newly hatched echidnas weigh as much as that coin, Peggy says.

Subsequent work showed that echidna hatchlings are almost foetal and respire through their skin for up to four days until their lungs develop. Peggy and Mike also found that on KI females carry their single egg in their pseudo-pouch for 10 days before it hatches, and then the hatchling for another 45–55 days. Once the babies, known as puggles, begin to develop sharp spines, their mothers dig a nursery burrow for them, where they

continue to suckle them for seven months. Females will go out to forage and return only to provide milk for about two hours once every fi ve days, at which time a puggle can take in an incredible 10–40 per cent of its body mass in milk. A defi ning trait of all mammals is that they produce milk. But egg-laying monotremes are unlike placental and marsupial mammals (the young of which develop in a womb and a true pouch, respec-tively), in that they have no teats or nipples.

The milk is instead suckled by the puggles from milk patches on the mother’s abdomen. Because this is a less sterile delivery mechanism than a teat, monotreme milk has remarkable anti-microbial substances, which are now being studied for human medical applications (see The puzzle of the platypus, AG 150).

July to September is the best time to see echidnas in the wild because these normally solitary animals form ‘echidna trains’, where up to 10 males will follow a female for many weeks hoping to mate with her. Peggy and Roger were the fi rst to observe and document echidnas mating, showing that females will eventually lie fl at on their stomachs while the suitors dig a circular trench or ‘mating rut’ around her. Finally, the most dominant male will shove the others out of the way, lie on his side and tuck his tail under her. The pair will then mate cloaca to cloaca.

IF YOU REALLY want to see echidnas, Peggy says, it’s better going to Tasmania than KI. She has about 40 study subjects over a 1500ha area. But in a similar sized area of Tasmania

Stewart Nicol has up to 200. Abundance is just one way in which fl uffi er-looking Tasmanian echidnas diff er to those on KI. Tassie echidnas hibernate for 4–5 months, something not seen on KI or across Australia’s arid zones. Stewart has also documented diff erences in how they mate, incubate eggs and raise young.

Tasmanian echidnas go into hibernation as early as January – which seems counterintuitive, given this is the warmest time of the year – and emerge to mate in May or June. Males emerge earlier and often seek out and mate with females even before they have fully awoken. Echidnas also hibernate in south-eastern Queensland and on Mt Kosciuszko at exactly the same time. So, rather than being entirely temperature driven, Stewart suspects hibernation is more to do with conserving energy over the periodwhen ants and other invertebrate prey are in shortest supply.

Before that, many people had assumed echidnas incubated and hatched their eggs in burrows, as platypuses do.

The tiny,

leathery

echidna egg

is only about the

diameter of a US dime or

an Australian 5c coin.

Echidnas are surprisingly accomplished swimmers. Cambridge

University’s Jack Ashby suspects they fl oat so well because their

quills are hollow, providing added buoyancy.

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“We really don’t know why they do it,” he says. “It may be something that they need to do. In February–March the overall ecosystem productivity drops off , as things dry out, so I think they are getting less food for the eff ort during late summer and autumn.”

Presently, the short-beaked echidna is one species comprising fi ve diff erent subspecies. But could there be two species? Stewart’s latest work suggests there may be two broad kinds of echidna in Australia that have diff erent diets and, as a result, diff erent skull and beak shapes. The echidnas of WA, South Australia, KI and the centre of the continent are generally more arid-zone specialists, and tend to eat more ants and termites. Those of Tasmania and the east coast eat a much higher proportion of grubs, particularly cockchafer larvae, which are more abundant in those wetter regions. Tahlia’s work on the scats also suggests echid-nas take in some plant matter and fungi in addition to invertebrates.

ONE ISSUE WITH echidnas being so poorly surveyed and little known on the mainland is there is no way to tell if they are declining. Peggy’s research on the KI sub-

species – for which threats include feral cats, vehicle strikes and habitat loss – resulted in it being classifi ed as endangered in 2015.

Because mainland echidnas have been so understudied, they haven’t been seen as facing a conservation risk before, “but those are all the same threats we fi nd across the whole of Australia”, Tahlia says. She hopes EchidnaCSI will continue in the future, “and we can actually see some population trends over time, which we’ve never had the ability to do before”.

Stewart says that after such a long-running fi eld project (see AG 8), one of his favourite things about studying echidnas is

they “live so long that you can follow them for a long time and get to know a particular individual’s personality and behaviour”. Echidnas can live for 50 years or more, comparable to the life-span of an elephant, and an almost inconceivably long time for a small mammal, most of which don’t live beyond a decade.

Peggy also says it’s their sense of personality that sometimes delights her: “Echidnas I think like to have fun. We’ve watched echidnas climbing up on tree branches and then doing somersaults off , just as if they were playing. Echidnas also like to go for a swim, and we get reports about them swimming across dams when they could have just walked around.” Other stories from the Great Ocean Road tell of people attempting to ‘save’ echidnas from the surf only to watch them head straight back into the ocean again. “They are just an animal that intrigues everyone because they go their own way and do their own thing,” Peggy says.

Australians should know when they encounter an echidnathey are “seeing something very, very special”, she adds. “They have been around for so long, but are disappearing, and my biggest concern is that there isn’t enough information about echidnas on the mainland. They’re not considered threat-ened there, but there are places where they’ve gone extinct… They’re Australia’s most ubiquitous mammal, yet we have really ignored them.”

Echidnas have been bred successfully in

captivity. Babies, such as these at Taronga

Zoo in Sydney, are called puggles.

DOWNLOAD the EchidnaCSI app from the App Store or

Google Play. For more on the project: grutznerlab.weebly.com or

facebook.com/EchidnaCSI. To help understand the impact of

Black Summer, researchers are keen to hear from readers about how

echidnas fared in fi re-hit regions. Email: [email protected]

Black Summer showed that modern bushfire-mitigation strategies are failing.

Does the answer lie in restoring ancient Aboriginal burning practices?


He pauses, as if he senses movement, looks skyward, then places one hand on a scorched-black tree.

The devastation wrought by the Black Summer fires was raw and immense, especially for Aboriginal people who watched country and kin burn as never before with the deep-seated knowledge that if they’d been able to maintain cultural fire practices, developed during millennia before the arrival of Europeans, those fires would never have occurred in the way they did. This country has changed, and extreme fires fanned by climate change are a new force shaping Australian ecosystems.

Aboriginal fire practitioners such as Nook know there is another way, and seasoned firefighters are beginning to heed their call. They say that if cultural land management practices were widely reapplied, many parts of the country could be healed, even protected from future fires, with the resilience of healthy landscapes restored and the strength in communities renewed. But first, an ancient fire knowledge needs to be resurrected.


TRACES OF AN Australia markedly different from what we see now can be found in the ground. Glimpses are also recorded in the paintings and

journals of early British explorers. Before colonisation, smoke and fires regularly occurred – dotted across the country as far south as Tasmania – under the watchful eye of Aboriginal people actively managing the landscape, as they had done for tens of thousands of years.

Take a walk with Michael-Shawn Fletcher through the rainforests of Tasmania’s Surrey Hills today, and he’ll show you what remains. Not far from the coast, these rainforests snake along rivers and spread across high plains atop an otherwise mountainous landscape in the state’s rugged north-west. Occasionally, you might stumble into a patch of treeless grass or come across the stump of an ancient

University of Tasmania scientists

work with members of the Aboriginal

community and local landowners in

central Tasmania to return patrula (fire)

to this remnant eucalypt woodland.

As Nook Webster walks on Yuin country, he moves slowly, picking his way through the tall gum trees.

Michael-Shawn Fletcher researches

the long-term interactions between

humans, climate, disturbances such

as fire, and vegetation.

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eucalypt buried among the dense, dank shrubs – a relic from another time when it had space and light to branch far and wide.

As for Aboriginal people elsewhere, the Palawa people of Tasmania used fi re to sculpt the landscape and care for country. Open grassy areas were created to attract small animals for hunting, a technique known as fi restick farm-ing. The same patches could also function as wildlife refuges during bushfi res. “Aboriginal people have dozens of words for the way they use fi re,” explains Michael-Shawn, a Wiradjuri man and University of Melbourne biogeogra-pher. “It was deliberate and they were thriving.”

As a student, he was inspired to question common-held views of Australia, particularly Tasmania, as an untouched wilderness. He wanted to see what the land had to say, believing that with understanding comes appreciation and respect. This led to a career studying records of environ-mental change and, specifi cally, the interactions between humans, climate and vegetation.

Most recently, he has reconstructed past landscapes from plant remains and pollen spores in the soils beneath modern-day rainforests in Surrey Hills. What he’s found is that moving through time from earlier, deeper soils up towards the surface, charcoal fragments that would have littered the ground with regular cultural burns all but disappear, and the native grasses and eucalypts that once grew are replaced by introduced weeds and woody rainforest trees.

“Those signatures in the landscape all converge to tell you a story of grassy landscapes with broad branch-ing trees and fi re burning underneath,” Michael-Shawn says, explaining that the same signs can be seen at other sites along Australia’s south-east coast, on the Bellarine Peninsula, in Victoria, at Potato Point, in New South Wales, and all the way to Queensland.

“Aboriginal people were profoundly infl uential in cre-ating this landscape.”

That means, he says, the way we view fi re in the Australian landscape needs to radically transform, because things have clearly changed. In the past 200 years, there have been more large, hot fi res than ever before.

The fi rst catastrophic bushfi re ever documented in Australia hit Victoria two decades after Aboriginal people were forcibly removed from their land, Michael-Shawn says. Without traditional custodians applying cool, cul-tural burns to country, the trees moved in and bushfi re followed. Bushfi res became more frequent and ferocious, until last summer, under the overriding infl uence of climate change, there was possibly the largest forest fi re in recorded history, the Gospers Mountain megafi re.

After peering into the past, Michael-Shawn is more concerned about the future. He believes cultural burning could create more resilient, less fl ammable, landscapes and more resilient communities, particularly in the most densely populated part of Australia – the south-east.


Where he lives, in Victoria, a federation of traditional owners is leading fire and land management agencies through the state-wide cultural fire strategy. Moreover, Aboriginal rangers in the Northern Territory are world leaders in fire management, applying fire across savannah grasslands for decades now and showing countries such as Botswana, in Africa, how it’s done.

In NSW, which emerged as the worst-hit state after Black Summer, there are select recruits with Indigenous expertise within various fire and land management agencies, but the driving force is a grassroots movement led primarily by the Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation, which is working with Aboriginal communities to revive cultural practices through workshops and training programs.

“There’s a lot of knowledge out there that just needs to be reawakened,” Michael-Shawn says. “Aboriginal people want to engage, they want to reconnect and they’ve said with open arms we’ll walk this path with you.”

GREG MULLINS IS STILL reeling from what he saw last summer. As the former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW, the state’s urban fire service,

Greg still fights fires voluntarily as he’s done since he was a teenager. He was at Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast on New Year’s Eve when the Currowan fire had people fleeing to the sea. He also backed up against the Gospers Mountain megafire that surrounded north-western Sydney.

Forthright and earnest, he can offer numerous recom-mendations for what needs to be done differently, ranging

from rapid detection of new fire outbreaks in remote areas followed by swift aerial attack, to installing local solar-fed electricity grids so communications don’t go down. But his main message is that you mustn’t leave community out of this.

In a career spanning four decades, Greg has seen fire-fighting and its risk-mitigation strategies become increas-ingly sophisticated, which, unfortunately, in some cases, excluded the very communities it was trying to protect. When Greg first joined the fire service, landowners were almost wholly responsible for managing their own prop-erties. But then risk management was tasked to centralised government agencies for the sake of coordination and safety. Poor burning practices were also a concern. The responsibility was transferred exclusively to government and with it, Greg says, a lot of local know-how was lost.

After the 2009 Victorian Black Saturday disaster, authorities conceded that withholding information from the public had cost lives. Emergency public broadcasting was introduced afterwards, along with a new fire danger rating of catastrophic. Authorities learnt from that disaster how communities needed to be part of the solution. That was more than 10 years ago.

Greg Mullins, a former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner

and internationally recognised authority on bushfire and disaster

response, today leads Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action,

a group of bushfire survivors, local councillors and firefighters

who lobby for urgent action on climate change.

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“Communities who understand fi re, survive fi re,” Greg says simply. And, with at least 65,000 years of experience, Aboriginal people know how to manage this land. Show-ing respect for their deep knowledge of this country, Greg says, is long overdue: “We need a horizon of years and decades, not weeks and months. That’s a change for the fi re services. But our Indigenous brothers and sisters used to think that way, so let’s tap into them.”

WHEN THE RAINS fi nally fell in February, Nook Webster returned to Bundanon, a once-private property on a bend in the Shoalhaven River,

west of Nowra, to see what damage had occurred. The Currowan megafi re had come close. In fact, it

burnt right to the edge of a large area Nook and his mob had treated with a cultural burn 16 months earlier, then stopped. Nook retraced his steps through the bush to fi nd the place where the two fi res had met. “This is a meeting place,” he said. “From this place we have knowledge and we learn.”

For Aboriginal people, the Shoalhaven River is a special feature in the landscape where two language groups meet

– Dharawal to the north and Dhurga to the south. In 2018 the 10th National Indigenous Fire Workshop was held at Bundanon, organised by the Firesticks Alliance and led by Nook, who’s an elder with both the Yuin and Walbanja. During 13 days and nights, Nook, his son and nephews walked with fi re as it trickled along the ground and led workshops for community, rangers and agency staff . He says the burn at Bundanon created its own dialogue about what cultural burning can do across a landscape.

“We need people not fi ghting fi re, but walking with fi re,” says Nook. “Through walking with fi re, we can create a healthy landscape.” Aboriginal fi re moves slowly and burns cool to protect a forest’s canopy. It burns only the grass and shrubs beneath and creates a patchwork of vegetation types and ages, unlike mainstream fi re manage-ment programs, which burn large blocks of land at once.

A cultural burn is also less intense than hazard reduction burns, the mainstay of modern fi re management. In this way it clears leaf litter and fallen bark but doesn’t carry enough heat for invasive native shrubs to germinate, which would raise the fi re risk. Instead, native grasses are encour-aged to grow back to hold the next fi re close to the ground. P

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“We need people not fighting fire, but walking with fire. Through walking with fire we can create a healthy landscape.”

The Firesticks Alliance ensures the right people are

involved in planning and implementing fi re on country,

based on their cultural connections to the land.

The organisation provides Indigenous leadership and

advocacy, running fi re workshops, such as this one

at Bundanon in NSW in 2018, across the country to

teach cultural fi re and land management practices.


IN THE EARLY DAYS of Firesticks, co-founder Oliver Costello recalls, it was hard to convince anyone in NSW to allow culturally appropriate burning. Even now, he

says, Aboriginal people must make cultural compromises to comply with fire and land management agency policy, and their access to cultural lands often hinges on local landholder support.

Oliver is a Bundjalung man from northern NSW who reconnected with his fire knowledge first in the Blue Mountains, then on Cape York Peninsula with Victor Steffensen, a long-time consultant reapply-ing traditional knowledge in Australia. Together they formed the Firesticks Alliance. Although their work will always be tied to Kuku Thaypan elders Tommy George and George Musgrave, both of whom have since passed away, the vision for Firesticks has always been to connect communities across Australia and help rekindle cultural fire practices.

The 2018 National Indigenous Fire Workshop was a big step forward in that regard. It was the first held outside Cape York Peninsula and was a way of pushing straight through barriers that have constrained Aboriginal people from practising their culture on country. At Bundanon, they were invited by the owners and supported by land management and fire agencies.

It was clear where the authority sat – with country. “The knowledge comes from the land; it teaches the lore,” Oliver explains. To decipher the fire stories of a place such as Bundanon, where cultural fire has been absent for so long, Aboriginal fire practitioners look to the “parent” trees, the oldest trees in an area, to see what kind of fire they need. By reading indicators in country – of the plants, birds, animals, rain, wind and soil – practitioners know the right time to burn, how often and how hot.

Oliver hopes that all Australians are beginning to under-stand that Aboriginal people’s traditional fire knowledge is a critical practice that’s integral to how we all should be looking after this country and each other. But he knows there are still profound cultural differences to overcome. He says that because authorities are fixated on removing fuel, they don’t manage for country – for the fire stories of that land. “It’s a big journey that we’re on,” he says.

THE BLACK SUMMER BUSHFIRES were the latest trag-edy in a long line of fire catastrophes. A decade ago, there was Victoria’s Black Saturday and before

that, the Canberra fires of 2003. For Phil Zylstra, a former firefighter turned academic, it was the Canberra fires that had him questioning mainstream understanding of fire.

Phil studies fire behaviour and forest flammability by taking a bird’s-eye view of fire-riddled landscapes. While working in fire management, he developed the f irst peer-reviewed fire behaviour model for eastern Australia’s eucalypt forests. He later tested it against fires with colleagues at the Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires, showing that the size and species of plants, not fuel loads, determine how quickly a forest goes up in flames.

Last summer, Phil says, bushfires burnt like never before, due to the dryness, and things got out of hand. “We’re kind of out of our depth. We don’t understand fire behaviour very well, we just like to tell ourselves that we do,” he says. “Our assumption that it’s all about fuel loads has completely misunderstood what has happened in the past.”

For about 80 years the general strategy led by fire agencies has been to fight fire with fire, to burn as much country as fast as possible, as Phil puts it. Get rid of the fuel, clear out the shrubby understorey. Burn it now, to save it later. Called hazard reduction burning, it’s based on the idea that recently burnt forests are less flammable than long-unburnt areas because there’s less fuel.

Now experts say that prescribed burning has reached the limits of what’s practically possible. Aiming to slow out-of-control wildfires, authorities are burning more land with little protection to life and property granted in return. To achieve 1 hectare less of bushfire, the best rate is 4ha of prescribed fire, the strategy goes, except that prescribed burning does little to slow a bushfire under extreme fire-weather conditions and in times of drought. It’s also getting risky with a narrowing window of weather suitable for prescribed burns, forcing agencies to meet their targets in less time. Then, of course, there’s the smoke that accompanies controlled burns.

Hazard reduction burning has always been a hot topic, with communities claiming more should be done. P

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Oliver Costello, at the Firesticks Alliance workshop

at Bundanon in NSW in 2018, where cultural burning later

protected the site from the Black Summer bushfires.

Through mentoring and leadership, Victor Steffensen (at left),

a Tagalaka man, works to revive traditional knowledge and values

passed to him by elders Dr Tommy George and Dr George Musgrave.


The vision has always been to connect communities and help rekindle their cultural fire practices.

The late Dr George Musgrave (at

left) and the late Dr Tommy George

– Kuku Thaypan men – hold a fire

torch. The two grew up on country on

Cape York Peninsula, QLD, steeped in

the knowledge of their elders. They, in

turn, were able pass on traditional fire

knowledge to a younger generation

that included Victor Steffensen.


“We’re just re-establishing a cultural learning pathway that’s been in place for thousands of years.”

A young girl sets fi re to dry grass in northern Australia,

where managing savannah grasslands using Indigenous

fi re knowledge is widely practised. It’s even returning

valuable income to communities in the form of carbon

credits. Fire in northern Australia is widely acknowledged

as healthy for country, and managing the rangelands

using Indigenous knowledge hugely reduces greenhouse

gas emissions from these fi res.


Black Summer actually came at the peak of prescribed burning practices in NSW, says Phil, who analysed publicly available fire history records. He found NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service doubled their efforts this past decade with more prescribed burning in their parks than during any decade before. “Our approach is that we just have to keep hitting it harder,” Phil says. “But we’re work-ing against the natural system.”

Fire and forests have their own processes, something Aboriginal people have long understood. Historically, they knew which forests to protect and which ones could be burnt safely, which species thrived with fire and which ones suffered. That knowledge is still there. Aboriginal cultural fire management is as much about choosing what not to burn as it is where fire should go, and all about understand-ing which species belong and what makes them healthy. “Sometimes that means no fire,” Oliver Costello explains. According to Phil Zylstra, modern fire management just doesn’t have the same nuance…at least not until now. Fire agencies such as the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) are planning to replace existing “crude” methods with improved risk-prediction tools to help them decide how and where prescribed fire should be applied in the land-scape. Similarly, University of Wollongong researchers have released an ‘atlas’ for eastern Australia that shows where prescribed burns would be most effective in a particular landscape and where it has limited value.

As for all the maps and models he uses, Phil admits it’s a mere fraction of what Aboriginal fire practitioners have to offer. “Cultural burning is such a complex and clever science,” he explains.

WITH A THREAT so great and lives on the line, fire authorities are unlikely to change their main operations unless the alternative is really shown

to work. And that may be why, underscored by recent rec-ommendations from the NSW Bushfire Inquiry, there’s now extraordinary public interest in Indigenous ways with fire.

Conversations are happening at a local level, in commu-nity fire brigades, and collaborative research projects are underway. In the midlands of Tasmania, for example, at the suggestion of one farmer, the Aboriginal community is working with scientists to return fire (patrula) to a remnant eucalypt woodland on the property and study its effect.

Another is comparing the outcomes of cultural with prescribed burning in Warra National Park and Wattleridge Indigenous Protected Area, outside Guyra in northern NSW. University of New England ecologist Michelle McKemey describes it as a practical alliance between the NSW RFS, Northern Tablelands Local Land Services, Firesticks and the local Banbai rangers, who have been

empowered to reintroduce cultural burning on ances-tral lands. The Banbai rangers chose what to monitor before and after each burn and that includes the totemic short-beaked echidna and threatened backwater grevillea. Their cultural fire protected both species, reducing fuel loads without removing mature stands of grevillea or the echidna’s log hollows.

This two-way approach is at the heart of Aboriginal culture, Oliver Costello says, and likewise, the Firesticks Alliance reflects what has always been – people coming together, connected through ceremony and songlines, learning from each other and sharing knowledge.

“People would come from all over, gathering for cer-emony. My old people walked from here [in northern NSW] to the Bunya Mountains [in Queensland], and all along the way they would burn,” he says.

“Through Firesticks, we’re just re-establishing a cul-tural learning pathway that’s been in place for thousands of years. Sure, there are big gaps in knowledge, but the bigger the gap, the bigger the opportunity, and the more powerful that process is.”

But, Oliver adds, Aboriginal fire practitioners need seri-ous support for Indigenous-led programs, not short-sighted policies, if they are to restore whole landscapes. “In a modern sense, it’s about livelihood. Not just a cultural burn here, a workshop there, but cultural fire teams empowered to practise their culture on country under their own authority, supporting landholders and land managers, and being resourced and recognised for that.”

Nook Webster has ambitions, too. Working for South East Local Land Services, he hopes Aboriginal fire prac-titioners and landowners can find common ground in a stewardship approach that puts country first. “We want all landholders to start connecting with country, to help maintain and heal country, to take ownership and revisit the old ways to improve current conditions,” he says.

Realistically, it will take decades to revive cultural prac-tices in a meaningful way, but valuing traditional knowl-edge is the best opportunity we have in a changing climate to remake resilient landscapes and protect communities, Oliver says. “It’s going to take a long time to heal and we need to start now.”

“If traditional practices are applied back into the landscape,

everyone benefits from it,” says Nook Webster, a proponent of

Aboriginal ecological land management practices and a former

national parks ranger. “There’s food and moisture and the

landscape becomes a productive environment.”

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STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN GILLIGAN

A bay of plentyThe rich biodiversity of Moreton Bay, in Queensland, has seen it

recognised as a Hope Spot, part of a series of global marine sites

considered critical to the health of the world’s oceans.


Griffith University’s Johan Gustafson investigates

estuarine habitat use. Here he

releases a bull shark back into

waters just north of the Gold Coast.

BULL SHARKS IN Moreton Bay are a very good sign for Brisbane. The waters of this subtropical east coast waterway are as close as 14km to the city’s CBD, and the coastal lands that fringe its westerly edge have been impacted by European settlement since the late 1800s. These days there

is ever-growing pressure on the natural ecosystems here, with the bay – which extends about 125km, from Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast in the south, to Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in the north – being on the doorstep of Australia’s fastest-growing urban strip.

Because they are top-order predators, bull sharks are sensitive indicators of environmental change. So having them around is a sign of a healthy ecosystem, Johan Gustafson from the Griffi th Centre for Coastal Management, explains reassuringly.

The mouths of rivers feeding the popular waters of Moreton Bay comprise an important bull shark nursery area. Pregnant females arrive in the warmer months to give birth and their pups grow here, feeding on small fi sh in the dark estuarine waters before migrating off shore as adults. Understanding thesignifi cance to the bull shark life cycle of alternate artifi cialcoastal habitats in the area is crucial for determining the impactof coastal development on this threatened, and potentially dan-gerous, species.

There have been two recent documented human fatalities attributed to encounters with bull sharks in the canal and artifi -cial lake systems of the Gold Coast. Griffi th University research-ers suggest that, with increased impacts on the natural environment, artifi cial coastal habitats are becoming used more by large juvenile bull sharks, increasing the chance of interactions between these predators and people.

“Moreton Bay is becoming more developed especially around the mangroves, where there is also a lot of shipping and recreational fi shing,” Johan explains. “By removing the seagrass and mangrove areas along the coast, we could be re-moving the shark’s preferred habitats.” And that means they’re likely to look elsewhere for food.

Previous tagging studies on bull sharks from the Gold Coast region have shown that this species prefers to inhabit healthy estuarine sys-tems with enough prey to support them, rather than the artifi cial canals and lakes. However, because the sharks occur naturally in adjacent areas, they will often move into adjoining artifi cial habitats. An incentive for them is that most of their preferred prey – including tailor, mullet, herring, trevally and bream – thrive in the canals and lakes.

The Griffi th University researchers are learning much about how the sharks are using bays and river systems where there is a lot of development. When it rains, for example, more fresh water enters the rivers, resulting in more bull sharks around estu-


QLDMoreton BayBRISBANE

During the cooler months, deeper rocky reefs beyond

Moreton Bay are home to seasonal aggregations of

protected grey nurse sharks, seen here swimming

with a school of fusiliers.


A series of artificial canal estates has been developed

from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast to meet an

ever-increasing demand for housing. Their construction

often requires the reclamation of natural wetlands.

The expansive network of sandbanks in South Passage,

between Moreton and North Stradbroke islands, is clearly

seen from the air, highlighting the area’s critical role in

sediment transport along the south-east QLD coast.


aries. The team has also observed that larger sharks come into the waterways in September–October when the waters warm, a trigger for females to enter the river systems and give birth.

“Swimmers need to be mindful not to swim or paddle after big rainstorms,” Johan warns. “Rain is a big trigger for the sharks and this information needs to be incorporated into management responses.” The information may also contribute to the design and engineering of impediments to stop sharks entering built areas during these times, helping reduce the chance of negative interactions between sharks and people.

MORETON BAY’S COASTAL strip is naturally a maze of wetlands, the type of habitat that’s been increasingly threatened worldwide since about the middle of last

century. Here is no exception. But the good news is, as bull sharks show, many of the bay’s natural wildlife inhabitants are finding ways to survive, often with the help of passionate locals, researchers and conservationists.

Like a natural lung, Moreton Bay draws in salt water rich in oxygen as well as nutrients from the Pacific Ocean and dis-charges fresh water from the upper reaches of the catchment on the outgoing tide. This tidal ebb and flow is a constant for the marine habitats here, which range from rocky shores, deep reefs, sandy beaches and mudflats to seagrass meadows and mangroves. S

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Rare humpback dolphins, dugongs (see AG 118) and turtles, as well as a range of sharks – including hammerheads and tigers, as well as bulls – shelter in Moreton Bay’s waters, which are pro-tected by some of Australia’s largest sand islands, including South Stradbroke, North Stradbroke and Moreton. Deeper offshore reefs support a rich mix of both tropical and temperate species. Carpeted partly in a living veneer of complex coral diversity delivered by the East Australian Current from the Great Barrier Reef, these reefs of contrast are also the northern limit for cold-er-water species, such as the grey nurse shark. This docile fish is often seen by divers in the bay alongside filter-feeding manta rays arriving from the north.

Sheltered from a large ocean swell, Moreton Bay also has a long history of human occupation and use that stretches well back before Europeans arrived to the local Quandamooka people who worked alongside resident dolphins to catch fish. A sea spirit that manifests as a dolphin, Quandamook is an important creator spirit for Aboriginal people here.

Coral mining, sand mining and whaling began after European colonisation and turtles were hunted commercially from 1824 to 1950. A conservation movement focused on the bay began in the mid-1960s, with strong public opposi-tion against plans for a canal estate and further mining. This soon resulted in the first protected areas being declared within

Green turtles thrive in the warm,

sheltered waters of Moreton Bay, where

they feed on extensive seagrass beds.


Moreton Bay, to conserve habitats from coastal development while still allowing for sand and coral mining and commercial and recreational fishing.

Three decades later, in 1992, after a long campaign by local conservationists, scientists, tourism groups and educators, Moreton Bay Marine Park was declared to protect the area’s unique values while also continuing to allow sustainable use. Park management includes actions such as the development of designated ‘go slow areas’ for motorised boats, to protect turtles and dugongs from boat strikes, particularly in seagrass feeding areas.

The listing last year of Moreton Bay as a Hope Spot brings it wider global attention, which adds another level of protec-tion. The Hope Spot concept was developed by the Mission Blue initiative of internationally famed marine biologist Dr Sylvia Earle. Supported by Rolex’s Perpetual Planet program, it aims to help safeguard “special places that are scientifically identified as critical to the health of the ocean...championed by local conservationists whom we support with communications, expeditions and scientific advisory”.

Sylvia has visited and dived in Queensland for many years and the recognition of the waters off Brisbane as a Hope Spot are not surprising. The conservation initiative describes Moreton Bay as “a mecca for marine biodiversity” that “hosts tropical, subtropical and temperate species within its matrix of man-groves, mudf lats, seagrass, coral reefs, and sand islands.” For more on Hope Spots, see: mission-blue.org/hope-spots

WITH SLIGHTLY MORE than 3 million people, Brisbane is Australia’s third most populous city, behind Sydney and Melbourne. Being at the centre of a south-east

Queensland strip that’s experiencing Australia’s most rapid urban-isation, its population is expected to reach 4–5 million by 2031. Mostly notably, Brisbane is book-ended by expanding urban centres surrounding the Sunshine Coast to the north and the Gold Coast to the south, all of which are on the shores of Moreton Bay. Most of the population in this area already resides around 15 catchments that drain into the bay.

These waters face pressures from a suite of impacts common to coastal cities the world over. Some are linked specifically to developments such as the incremental expansion of the Port of Brisbane and construction of the Gold Coast Seaway. Others arise from the cumulative impacts of urbanisation and include run-off, sedimentation, stormwater and the deposition of asso-ciated marine debris, habitat loss, and increasing watercraft use.

Mangrove forests filter land-based run-off, particularly sedi-ments and nutrients, and help support clearer and cleaner water, which is important for coral reef health and seagrass meadows.

Rare humpback dolphins, dugongs and turtles, as well as a range of sharks, find shelter in Moreton Bay’s waters.

Marine plants such as the common grey

mangrove play key roles in the Moreton

Bay ecosystem. They contribute to primary

production, food security and habitat for a

huge range of marine animal species.

The Australian humpback dolphin,

which survives in inshore habitats around

built coastal areas of Moreton Bay,

including the Brisbane River, was only

recently described as a separate species.


It’s also acknowledged that three-quarters of all fish caught in Queensland directly use mangroves or depend on food chains that rely on them. In the past, the destruction of saltmarsh, mangroves and tidal flats that soften the natural foreshore has occurred due to the creation of some of the largest canal estates and lakes in Australia. Some of these are directly attached to the natural estuarine systems, while others are an extension of the waterway with tidal flows restricted by gates and locks to prevent erosion and allow for the expansion of waterfront property available for development.

These artificial waterways tend to have poorer water quality, limited circulation and more input from untreated stormwater. And as indicated by the Griffith University bull shark research in the area, they affect the ecology and interaction between spe-cies found here. Once viewed as salty, insect-infested eyesores that blocked coastal views and impeded foreshore developments including marinas, ports, jetties and boat ramps, mangrove forests are now being widely acknowledged for their benefits.

The Queensland government has begun implementing management strategies to help address its own historic contribu-tion to the global decrease in these vital habitats. Notably, that includes a 450m mangrove walk – designed to educate about, and encourage an appreciation for, wetland areas – currently under construction between the City Botanic Gardens and Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane.

THE GOLD COAST’S expansive and stunning sandy shores and surf breaks are famous worldwide. Coastal processes work undertaken by the Griffith Centre for

Coastal Management during the past two decades has helped preserve important social and economic values in Moreton Bay, often protecting and enhancing the surf breaks and beaches that draw tourists to the area and underpin the lifestyle enjoyed by a growing number of locals.

However, the Gold Coast is also particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events, which often cause significant erosion, and that has been the focus of a long-term program for effective beach management, with which the Griffith Centre has also been involved. Along this stretch of coast, erosion has been an important natural process for many millennia. Sediments are transported northwards, driven by south-east wind and waves.

There can be a difficult balance between allowing the forces of nature have their way and protecting coastal urban land-scapes. And so a major focus of the Griffith Centre’s work has been to help ensure ongoing sediment transport continues along beaches that are affected by artificial obstructions, such as tidal entrances that force sand to build up on the updraught side and erosion to occur on the downdraught side.

The Gold Coast Seaway and associated sand bypass system was constructed between 1984 and 1986 to facilitate safe entry for commercial and recreational boats. Although it led to the loss of some estuarine marine habitats, the addition of a large amount of rock has also created an artificial habitat that supports an abundance of marine species enjoyed by divers and fishers.

“There was a need to artificially move sand from one side of the estuary to the other to ensure we didn’t lose South Stradbroke Island and to ensure the continued movement of sand up the coast,” explains Professor Rodger Tomlinson, the Griffith Centre’s founding director.

Natural sediment transport has been critical to sustaining the entire Moreton Bay ecosystem by creating the barrier Islands – South Stradbroke, North Stradbroke and Moreton islands. Over time these have become stabilised by vegetation and have isolated the bay to help support a relatively sheltered and shallow environment. “Without the barrier islands, this stretch of coast would be very different,” Rodger says. “It’s

“We have created a variety of reef types over the years to sustain a broad diversity of marine life including fish.”

Engineer Rodger Tomlinson, foundation director of the Griffith Centre

for Coastal Management, looks for solutions to natural hazard threats,

such as sand drift and wave action, to coastal communities.


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hard to know where the coastline would be, sediment would be exposed to greater wave energy and there would be no seagrass or mangroves, which would influence the species that live there.”

BETWEEN 1963 AND 1984 a cluster of ships was scuttled by the Queensland government to provide safe anchorage for recreational boat owners on Moreton Bay’s sheltered

eastern side. These are the Tangalooma Wrecks. Currents carry-ing the larvae of marine invertebrates have since established them as artificial reefs attracting more than 100 fish species. They’re also visited by turtles, dugongs, cormorants and other large charismatic marine species, turning these wrecks into tourist attractions, particularly popular for snorkelling and scuba diving.

In other areas of Moreton Bay, the Queensland Department of Environment and Science has created artificial reefs to meet the needs of recreational fishers and reduce fishing impacts on natural reefs. The first was deployed in 2008, and there are now eight established as part of the Moreton Bay Artificial Reef Pro-gram. “We have created a variety of reef types over the years to sustain a broad diversity of marine life including fish,” says Steve Hoseck, a marine ranger with the department. “They are designed to benefit a range of different fishers, including spearfishers, line fishers, charter fishers, and some of our more recent reefs also benefit scuba divers.”

The reefs are constructed from a range of materials and have been named to reflect their purpose and design – reef balls,

IF THERE was ever a year when we met the native animals in

our backyards, it was this one. As COVID-19 confined us to home, and neighbourhoods became our only permitted outdoor destinations, we’ve grown more aware and appreciative of nature on our doorsteps. Cockatoo squawks and magpie songs became our daily soundtrack as we worked from home. In Australia we’re lucky to enjoy superb access to native landscapes and creatures. All our regional capitals boast great rivers and har-bours near their centres

and vast national parks within easy reach, often accessible by public transport. And our gardens can be havens for birds, lizards, possums and frogs. AG’s new book Urban Wild celebrates the native creatures surrounding us daily. Be inspired to discover what’s just beyond the front door – the birds and beasts we often take for granted. Peek beneath the sur-face of local waterways, such as Moreton Bay, and revel in their biodi-versity. And learn how to make your backyard wildlife-friendly and what’s okay to feed those feathered visitors.

The Aussie animals that share our cities, our backyards and our lives


Urban Wild

128 Urban Wild

DUGONGDugong dugon Few Australians have ever

seen a dugong, yet they’re

the most common marine

mammals in northern

Australia’s coastal waters,

outnumbering seals, whales

and even dolphins. These

slow-moving herbivores can

consume more than 25kg of

seagrass per day.

Flirtations with mariners of bygone eras made dugongs the stuff of romantic legends. Today, Australian scientists are uncovering the truth about these mysterious creatures.

Story by KAREN MCGHEE Photography By DARREN JEW

The mermaids of Moreton Bay

IT’S AN IDYLLIC spring morning on southern Queensland’s Moreton Bay and conditions are perfect for finding mermaids. Flocks of shearwaters bob on a glassy sea. Green turtles regu-

larly break the surface for noisy breaths between dives to graze on seagrass meadows. Pied cormorants pop up periodically, their long necks like submarine periscopes. And pods of sleek-swimming bottlenose dolphins steer inquisitively towards our boat.

Photographer Darren Jew and I are not, of course, looking for mermaids, but the creatures believed to have sparked the legend. Soon enough, a perfect ocean-going tail – shaped like a dolphin’s but at least 1m wide at its trailing edge – breaks the water and waves briefly, Brisbane’s distant skyline glistening behind in the early light.

It’s easy to see how lonely sailors might at one time have thought this signalled a creature of submerged beauty. But minutes later we see a face that’s more Dr Seuss than Nereid. Clearly, those old mariners liked spinning tales, or were influenced by rum and isolation.

The exquisite tail and contrastingly comical face belong to one of Moreton Bay’s 800–1000 dugongs, which live adjacent to one of Australia’s most rapidly developing regions. The creature’s odd-looking head emerges just long enough to retract the valves that keep water from its nostrils while submerged and, with a snort, it sucks in fresh air before quickly disappearing beneath the surface.

LIMITED SURFACE TIME is a dugong trademark. Along with their preference for turbid water, it’s a major reason they’re so

elusive and why few Australians have ever seen one. Yet they’re the most common marine mammals in northern Australia’s coastal waters, outnumbering seals, whales and dolphins. They’re also big, with adults reaching lengths of about 3m and weights of 400–600kg.

Dugongs occur near seagrass meadows in the tropical and sub-tropical waters of about 40 Indo-Pacific countries. Australia is the species’ stronghold: perhaps 70,000 cruise the shallows of at least 10 different locations along the 25,000km of our northern coastline from Shark Bay, Western Australia, to Moreton Bay. The Torres Strait has the biggest population, with surveys suggesting at least 15,000 are there.

Above water, you won’t detect much noise from a dugong. But if you

put your head under water near a group of them, you’re likely to hear

chirping, as researchers have found.

Beneath the Surface 129

Discover the Aussie animals sharing our cities, backyards and lives.

Tourists enjoy exploring the shadowy

underwater world created by the rusty

hulks of the Tangalooma Wrecks off

Moreton Island.

Urban Wild is available now from AG online, all QBD

bookshops and other good bookstores. See page 52 for

how to get a free copy when you subscribe or renew your

existing subscription.


fish caves, fish boxes and apollo habitat modules. The design required for a site is defined by surrounding physical parameters because each reef needs to remain in place undisturbed long enough to allow time for the marine life to establish.

“Offshore, our reefs are more exposed to the elements and are made from really solid concrete structures that are stable and weigh anywhere from 16 to 20 tonnes,” Steve explains. The program has some units constructed from steel in deeper locations around Moreton Bay.

Different structure types attract different species, although it’s difficult to predict what structure type is going to attract what species. The modules are placed on sandy habitat, where there is no reef structure within 600m.

First the structure provides shelter for small fish, then ben-thic species such as coral, sponges and algae begin to settle and grow. Next come the species that feed on the benthic organism, and finally the larger predators arrive, helping to establish an artificial ecosystem.

DR ELIZABETH HAWKINS, founding director and lead researcher at Dolphin Research Australia, completed post-graduate research on dolphin behaviour, particu-

larly communication, at Tangalooma in 2001. These days she’s working on the Moreton Bay Dolphin Research Project, established in 2014 in partnership with the Queensland Department of Environment and Science. It identifies dolphins by using fin characteristics and after six consecutive seasons the team has identified 840 individual bottlenose dolphins and 178 humpback dolphins in Moreton Bay.

Australian humpback dolphins prefer inshore habitats in

Moreton Bay. The western side, around the Brisbane River, is a key habitat for them. The turbid estuarine waters there support the species’ southernmost east coast population. “The majority of our work is about observing the animals and their wild ways so we can really get an understanding of how they use this space, how they interact with each other and how that fits in to the whole population structure,” Elizabeth says. “We need long-term systematic surveys and comparative data so we can ensure their conservation and protection.”

Understanding the social world of humpback dolphins is in its infancy, but Elizabeth’s research has already found that males form paired alliances.

She is unable to say yet how the dolphins are coping with urban impacts but this will become clearer. What is known is that dolphins in Moreton Bay are under a great deal of pressure from a number of threats from human activity.

Animals are often harmed or killed by propeller and vessel strikes along with fishing gear entanglements. “Prelimi-nary research by colleagues has found that Australian humpback dolphins have relatively high loads of pollutants, which could be negatively impacting their reproductive systems,” Elizabeth says. “But how resilient these dolphins are to these threatening processes is currently unknown.”

The team has begun to collect and analyse biopsy samples to investigate the toxicology of the animals. Humpback dolphins are particularly susceptible because their habitat preference is based on community and learnt behaviour.

“They do not choose to avoid busy impacted areas such as the Port of Brisbane because this inshore area is actually an important habitat for them,” Elizabeth says.

What is known is that dolphins in Moreton Bay are under a great deal of pressure.

Elizabeth Hawkins studies human–dolphin

interactions in Moreton Bay. She identifies

individual dolphins by marks on the dorsal fins,

which are being caused increasingly by strikes

from boats.


AG

MORETON BAY IS a critical feeding area for resident green and loggerhead turtles. Although some nesting has been documented here, it mostly occurs north of

Bundaberg. Dr Kathy Townsend, a University of the Sunshine Coast animal ecology lecturer, is investigating how urban debris affects marine species such as sea turtles.“I look inside a lot of different things that have stranded,” Kathy says, explaining that a necropsy is often needed to identify a cause of death. Strandings can include both living and dead animals. Even when animals are alive and taken into care, stranding is still likely to cause death. The Queensland government’s Moreton Bay stranding database shows there has been an annual average of about 298 strandings for each of the past five years. The figures include dead, sick, injured, incapacitated, entangled or rescued marine turtles.

When Kathy began doing necropsies on sea turtles in 2006, 2 per cent of deaths were attributed to plastic ingestion. That statistic is now about 33 per cent. Kathy has also found marine debris in the guts of animals where the primary cause of death had been attributed to entanglement in fishing gear or boat strike. In 2018 she co-authored a paper to clarify how many pieces of marine debris it takes to kill a sea turtle. Results from nearly 1000 turtle necropsies used in the study revealed it took just 14 pieces of plastic to kill in half the individuals examined, and that a single piece has a 21 per cent chance of causing death.

Kathy recalls removing an assortment of debris from the gut of one juvenile sea turtle: “We retrieved items like fishing net, twine, plastic bags, balloons…pieces of hard plastic, such as a takeaway container, lolly wrappers, bits of foam from a meat tray – normal consumer stuff you find on the beach and use day to day.” Her team is now working on a global analysis to identify SC

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locations where sea turtles have a higher chance of interacting with marine debris. “We’re trying to identify sources of debris, how it moves from the land to the ocean, and how it travels on the currents,” Kathy says. It’s hoped this research will suggest ways to reduce the risk of interaction. Kathy says it might be most efficient to address stormwater issues in specific catchments, rather than all catchments, meaning local authorities can make the most of limited resources.

One of Kathy’s post-graduate students, Amalya Valle, is investigating seabird distribution in Moreton Bay and how these creatures interact with marine debris. She hopes the project will identify whether certain species are more susceptible to specific marine debris types and is also investigating the issue from a behavioural perspective. By placing cameras on garbage bins, Amalya can see which species are foraging in them, how they’re getting inside, what material they’re targeting, and if there’s a bin type that reduces the risks.

Many computer-generated models operate under the assump-tion there is more rubbish where there are more people. Kathy and Amalya are investigating other factors such as local popu-lation demographics and the median wage and social structure of an area. “You would think that a place like Moreton Bay, which is really close to Brisbane, would show strong signs of human impact,” Kathy says. “We are finding quite the opposite as people walk along their favourite beach and clean it up, which is really lovely, but it does make our job more challenging.”

Kathy applauds the fact that the region’s people seem to have a sense of pride about where they live, taking cleaning up into their own hands. It’s yet another reason why Moreton Bay deserves its new status as a Mission Blue Hope Spot.

PhD student Amalya Valle is studying

the interaction between marine debris and

seabirds in Moreton Bay.

Kathy Townsend carries out necropsies

on turtles that have died in Moreton Bay to

better understand the threats they face in an

increasingly urban setting.

96 Australian Geographic96 Australian Geographic


Running Man Rock

STORY BY RAY MARTIN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

RAY MARTIN AND KEN DUNCAN

A chance sighting from an aeroplane window led respected journalist and broadcaster Ray Martin

on an exciting outback adventure.

The extraordinary Running Man

Rock (left), here photographed

by Ray Martin (below) from a

helicopter, is part of an ancient

landscape that was once

an inland sea. It straddles

the QLD–NT border

south of Mount Isa.

IT WAS ABOUT SIX YEARS ago that I fi rst discovered him, purely by chance. At an hour and a half out of Sydney, my commercial fl ight turned north-west towards Darwin. And there he was in all his rampant majesty.

Running Man Rock, I call him.I fi rst took his portrait from 37,000ft, through the

double-plastic portal of a jetliner. Like the bloke in the American Express ad, I never leave home without my camera.

Over the years, I’ve taken thousands of photographs from high in the sky and happily gifted one or two prints to friends and family and sold quite a few more. I’ve now snapped Running Man – this extraordinary natural phenomenon of rock, sand and wildfl owers – at least a dozen times.

Flying north these days, I recognise all the familiar aerialsignposts: from the long lines of dunes that run south-eastto north-west, parallel to the prevailing winds, like weltsfrom the crack of a mighty whip; to the fi ligreerivers of the vast Diamantina Channel Country that spill across the fl oodplain like a wild woman’s knot-ted, black tresses; then fi nally the thin slash of a red dirt runway beside the old Roxborough Downs cattle station homestead, which tells me we’re almost overhead.

Suddenly there he is, racing out of the Barkly Tableland towards the Georgina River, exploding out of Northern Territory sunsets into outback Queensland, not far from Boulia and its mysterious Min Min lights.


This is the image I see from the window

of a commercial fl ight at 37,000ft ,

en route from Sydney to Darwin.

An entirely natural phenomenon, the

super-sized fi gure with outstretched

arms and legs is encircled by a vast array

of rock walls, gullies and astonishing

coloured patterns.

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He has a distinctive round head and body. His arms are stretched out each side and his legs are in full stride. Bigger and much more regal than Marree Man, in South Australia, Running Man was created not by a whitefella’s bulldozer 20-odd years ago, but by Dreaming spirits when this ancient land formed.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see him either. It’s not like lying on the grass looking up at the clouds trying to fi nd the full symphony orchestra or quartet of dancing troubadours that a loved one promises she can see among the lenticu-lar formations of fl uff y stuff . Once you’ve spied the mighty Running Man you can’t miss him.

You do, however, need to be at least a few hundred feet above the ground in an airliner, light plane or helicopter to truly appreciate just how awesome he is. But then it’s no secret, of course, that so much of the Australian landscape – from Lake Eyre, and even Uluru, to the Kimberley coast – is best seen from on high.

Along with Running Man there are also two large fi gure-eight shapes to his left. Chinese tourists are one day likely to fl ock there to snap that famously lucky number on their smartphones. And, believe it or not, there’s a distinct ‘map of Australia looking up from Running Man’s left foot (minus Tasmania, I’m sorry to report). But that’s only the centrepiece of this giant canvas of patterns, pastels and geological contortions that stretches across the empty landscape.

Radiating out from the highly colourful, rocky panorama are hundreds of semicircles and quadrant shapes – like the ripples of a huge stone thrown into a giant pond. I would guess the whole extravaganza spreads maybe 4–5km, perhaps more, across this dry gidgee and saltbush country, where vast cattle properties fatten Wagyu and sell it to the world’s best restaurants. That’s in a good season, after the rains fl ow down from the Gulf and eventually drain into the sink the Arabana people have always called Kati Thanda and what many others know as Lake Eyre.

Not one of the Qantas or Virgin pilots who provided me with Running Man Rock’s rough coordinates had ever seen him before. They were as bedazzled as I had been, seeing him in action for the fi rst time from 37,000ft.

Some of these professional fl yers boasted to have chalked up endless hours in their early careers steering cargo and small commuter planes through this same colourful, jigsaw-puzzle outback country. But still, they’d never even glimpsed this mighty fi gure before it was pointed out to them. Mind you, he’s only been out there for a 100 million years or so.

The whole extravaganza spreads maybe 4–5km across this dry gidgee and saltbush country.


Certainly not a place for the faint-hearted,

this empty, cattle-fattening country is home to

unbreakable young stockmen (above), beautiful river

red gums (left) and carpets of wildflowers (opposite).

The meandering Georgina River (right) is usually just a series of

waterholes until the rainy season, when it occasionally runs all

the way down to Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre in SA.


To be fair, for much of that time – before the era of Jurassic Park – he was probably lying under the inland sea and subsequently trodden down by mobs of dinosaurs and other prehistoric wanderers. On the ground there’s no shortage of coral-encrusted rocks and I don’t know how far you would have to dig beneath Running Man to find those big dino-saur skeletons. It’s certainly true that the excitement of farm-ers and palaeontologists uncovering dinosaur bones all around Winton vibrates right across this wild and woolly part of out-back Queensland.

THE FLOOD and black soil plains stretch out beyond the filmy horizon, well thatched by Flinders and Mitchell grasses and lightly timbered with mulga and gnarled

gidgee trees, which, having one of the hardest woods in the world, make the best firewood.

This can be a raw and unforgiving landscape. Those hapless explorers Burke and Wills trudged all the way from Melbourne with their camels to end their days out here. A generation later, the country was opened up to white pastoralists – mostly shepherds – who had frequent bloody encounters with the Aboriginal people who understandably objected to having their traditional lands invaded and stolen from them. It became a ghostly battlefield that ended badly and tragically for the First Australians… as it always seems to do.

When the sheep herders were driven to disaster – beaten by drought and dingoes – the beef breeders came with their rustlers and hustlers. In fact, the first property that legend-ary Cattle King Sidney Kidman ever bought in Queensland, Carandotta, was exactly where Running Man Rock marks out its southern border fence. Now adding to this already iconic and colourful tapestry, there is a highly speculative but growing belief that south of here – on the edge of the Simpson Desert – lies the true location of Harold Lasseter’s lost gold reef, an El Dorado of unimaginable riches (see Fabled Fortune, AG 150).

You have to shake your head in wonderment. This vast, empty land has it all. The vistas and beauty are guaranteed to take your breath away. But the isolation, heat and thirst will kill you within hours if you don’t respect it. So will some of the unique fauna – beyond the roos, camels and brumbies.

“Look out for the cigarette snakes,” one local blackfella warned me on the verandah of the Urandangi pub, explaining that it’s a deadly, local sand snake just 1m long.

“Why do you call him the cigarette snake?” I asked.“Because if he bites you,” came the answer with a well-

practised grin, “you’ve only got time to light up one smoke before you cark it.”

I think he was talking about the inland taipan, also called the fierce snake – the world’s deadliest.

Some years ago I showed my Running Man Rock pho-tographs, taken from 11km up in the sky, to Ken Duncan – Australia’s most highly acclaimed landscape photographer. Ken happens to be an old friend, with whom I’ve travelled many times in the outback and overseas. Like everyone, Ken was stunned by the size and extravagance of Running Man.

Always a willing volunteer for the next cockeyed adventure, he quickly put his hand up again, saying, “Count me in, when-ever you decide to go!”

I had reminded Ken that it was as recently as 1983 that a German television crew was commissioned by the West Australian government to film a documentary about that state. When they had finished the assignment they told then premier, Ray O’Connor, about a unique rock formation they had ‘dis-covered’ in the state’s far north-east.

Their discovery eventually became known to the world as the Bungle Bungles, in Purnululu National Park in the east Kimberley, which has since become one of Australia’s most popular national parks. That was less than four decades ago.

Anyone who travels this wide brown land of ours knows that there must be many other remote but exquisite sites, just waiting to be discovered by modern adventurers. Outback tourism – including the growing army of Grey Nomads – is desperate to identify and mark them on the itinerant traveller’s map (once they’re allowed to hit the open road again).

So that was another incentive for Ken Duncan and me to try and find Running Man Rock and photograph him on location. We were both filled with trepidation, wondering whether he would be anywhere near as spectacular on the ground as he was from 37,000ft.

I mentioned this unique Australian rock display to a couple of regional Queensland mates, John Wagner from Toowoomba and Peter ‘Polly’ Lindores, who hails from just outside of Warwick. “Having a go” is in their DNA and both are out-

Like everyone, photographer Ken Duncan was stunned by the size and extravagance of Running Man.

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standing businessmen and irrepressible adventurers. John built the groundbreaking new airport at Toowoomba, along with many other innovative projects in south-eastern Queensland. He has flown the length and breadth of the outback at the controls of his private planes and helicopters.

Polly, who ran one of Australia’s most successful high-rise crane operations for a couple of decades, knows the inland better than most – especially from a Robertson R44 chopper, which he drives like an airborne Toyota HiLux.

Both men, despite their impossibly busy schedules, need no excuse to “go bush”. And they can now afford to do it in style. Although they don’t need to be asked twice to climb into the cab of a bashed-up semitrailer and crash the gears through an ocean of bulldust and dead-end bush tracks, which we did. They can also fix anything that’s caked in grease, makes a noise and has a starter motor. Or so it seems.

AFTER TALKING FOR a couple of years about a “fly-drive expedition” to find Running Man Rock, it finally hap-pened late last year – just pre-COVID-19. And what

an extraordinary, quasi-military operation it turned out to be, strategised by Belinda Williams, Polly’s highly talented partner and a painter.

Making up our full expeditionary force, supplying power and plonk (enough red wine and water to equip a cathedral altar for a year) plus cooking skills, Belinda also drove the convoy out the back of Boulia.

We were quite the human cocktail.There was a wildly successful new and used car dealer

from Toowoomba; an unstoppable travel agent from the Gold Coast; a clever guitarist; a fishing entrepreneur from Brisbane; an award-winning cinematographer from Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program named Andy Taylor and my 30-year-old son, Luke. Also along on the expedition were two colourful characters from Melbourne who’d led a search for Lasseter’s Lost

Reef (with some degree of certainty, which is a story for another time).

After first flying into Mount Isa, four of us helicoptered through the afternoon shadows, down the long waterholes that make up the Georgina River. We joined the rest of the team and set up operations out of the abandoned stock-men’s quarters of nearby Linda Downs station.

Anxious about what we might find, if any-thing, Ken and I set out next day to try and locate our elusive Running Man.

Initially, it wasn’t easy. But cleverly tracking along a fence line, which Polly, our unstoppable chopper pilot, had identified in my original photographs, “Our Man” suddenly snapped into focus.

He seemed to be asking, “What took you so long?”Still, it was a truly spectacular sight in the midst of this starkly

beautiful country in the afterglow of a setting sun.Over the next few days we shot Running Man from every

conceivable angle and altitude. We landed on his sandy head and amid the sea of wildflowers on his belly. We marvelled at the expanse of rock walls, thrown out in wave after wave, like terraced rice paddies, climbing 500m up the hillside. Perfectly proportioned, they looked as if an army of highly skilled stone-masons had built them.

Of course, it’s all the creation of just one artisan – Mother Nature herself – which leaves you simply gobsmacked.

I seriously believe that the uncompromising vistas and experience of Running Man Rock could kick-start a real tourist bonanza here in outback Queensland. In the post-COVID era, when Australians won’t be flying overseas en masse for a while, the timing of this new natural feature could be the perfect antidote.

Straddling the Queensland–NT border, Running Man Rock is certainly no more isolated or remote than Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre or the Bungle Bungles, which draw a constant stream of more-adventurous travellers.

Light-plane f lights or helicopter rides from nearby Tobermorey Station and Roadhouse on the Plenty Highway would make Running Man easily accessible for tourists. It’s an absolute no-brainer.

Just make sure you bring your camera.

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It was a truly spectacular sight in the midst of this starkly beautiful country

in the afterglow of a setting sun.

Gidgee trees provide

food and shelter for

livestock out here, and

the best campfire fuel

anywhere. Our colourful

expeditionary team put

the wood to good use, with

steaks and a sing-song.

NOTE: Running Man Rock is located on private property and is

not open to the public. It’s hoped that a future expedition will shed

light on its cultural and scientific values and begin the process of

creating a new tourist attraction in Queensland’s outback.

A documentary film is in production at this time.


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Ken Duncan stands atop one of the hundreds of

granite rock walls that fan out in semicircles across this

breathtaking landscape for maybe 4–5km, resembling

giant ripples on a pond.

It was only when we viewed Running Man Rock from the

helicopter that we also saw a stylised map of Australia,

minus Tassie, at his left foot.

Out here, renowned photographer Ken Duncan

and our intrepid pilot Pete ‘Polly’ Lindores

found the Robertson R44 chopper the best

way to explore the Running Man Rock site –

flying it like an aerial Toyota HiLux.

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P106

Townsville’s amazing new underwater museumTownsville’s amazing new underwater museum

P116

Alice, queen of the desert drag show

One of the underwater

sculptures at the

Museum of Underwater

Art off the coast of

Townsville, QLD.

Art, submergedArt, submerged

A breathtaking new underwater art museum in the waters

off north Queensland is inspiring a new love for the

embattled Great Barrier Reef.

Story and photos by Cathy Finch

In a garden under the sea



The Southern Hemisphere’s fi rst

underwater art museum literally

melds human culture and the

creatures of the GBR, such as the

cuttlefi sh known as Kevin seen here .


An underwater photographer enjoys the evocative art of the

Coral Greenhouse, where culture

meets conservation.

The installation’s above-water sculpture, Ocean Siren,

radiates colours that change in

response to the surrounding

sea temperature.


It’s one of Earth’s most complex natural systems, home to countless animals. And to the rest of the world it’s one of the most identifiably Australian places. We all know what it is – the Great Barrier Reef (GBR)– and that it’s under pressure. But how can we frame its intricate natural architecture in a new way that inspires people to love it enough to care about its future?

That was the question passionate Townsville-based marine scientists Dr Adam Smith and Dr Paul Marshall were struggling with when they attended a talk by a fellow scientist discussing an underwater art installation on a reef in Cancun, Mexico.

It turned out to be a watershed moment.“Like all good ideas,” Adam says, “the seeds stem

from somewhere else. I listened to this scientist talk about what had been done on a reef in Mexico and thought what a perfect fit this concept would be for Townsville.

“We are a reef city, with the GBR on our doorstep, but many people don’t even realise this. We are the hub for scientific reef research and our city has a gathering of great minds studying our oceans and reef at James Cook University. We have the world’s largest living aquarium on display, but tourists still tend to link Cairns with the GBR, not Townsville. We needed to come up with some-thing that was going to shine a light on the science and culture of our reef here. And it needed to be thought- provoking on a global scale.”

THE IDEA OF underwater art installations located off the north Queensland coast was hatched. And this year, four years later, the Museum

of Underwater Art (MOUA) launched its first huge in-situ artwork on John Brewer Reef, 70km off the coast from Townsville.

“You know the saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’?” Adam asks. “Well, it has taken a city to get MOUA installed. So many extraordinary people, com-panies, private businesses and government departments have pulled together to be involved, supplying their time, expertise and funding to make this happen.”

Located in the Coral Sea off the Queensland coast is

the largest living structure in the world.

QLD

Townsville

BRISBANE

Crane lifts of up to 30t were needed to lower

the MOUA statues to the sea floor.

MOUA statues are all cast from real people, including children

who are representative of the future of the reef.

In time the statues will become covered in coral, and fish will make them their homes.

The 10-day installation process was complex and

challenging and took place within the confi nes of

an extremely sensitive marine environment.

A cuttlefi sh has already taken up residence in one of the

Coral Greenhouse hanging baskets.


The installation on Brewer’s is the fi rst of three. Others are planned for Magnetic Island, also off the Townsville coast, and Palm Island, further north.

“But of course we are enormously proud and excited about the opening of this fi rst installation. It’s a world-class experience,” says Adam, who is deputy chair of the MOUA board and owner of Reef Ecologic, a Townsville-based company that provides advice, research and training on issues facing coral reefs.

The MOUA team felt it was vital that the project attract a world-renowned artist, to bring it global atten-tion. “So with little or no budget, we contacted the best of the best – UK sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, who has previously been involved in underwater sculptures across the Northern Hemisphere.”

But how to attract him to the project with no money? “So we invited him to stay in our homes,” Adam recalls, explaining that Jason was embraced like a family member by the project team.

“We shared meals, took him diving and found out he is a particularly good squash player.” The strategy worked and Jason agreed to the project. Many meetings and much planning and collaboration followed during the next four years. “There needed to be strong vision for this project and the conversations with Jason were long and ongoing,” Adam says.

Jason’s willingness to take on a chal-lenging project on the other side of the world is evidence of his passion for art and conservation. Born in the UK, he graduated in 1998 from the London Institute of Arts with an honours degree in sculpture.

He’s also a fully qualifi ed diving instructor – trained in Queensland – and a naturalist and talented underwater photographer.

The vision for MOUA is to provide a submerged experience that inspires reef conservation and engages the community in cultural land and sea stories. Jason achieves that with a Coral Greenhouse idea that melds humanity and the reef, both metaphorically and fi g-uratively. Jason’s installation features life-like statues, cast using real people, to give life and breath to the reef itself, connecting art, science, culture and conservation.

I’m lucky enough to be on Yongala Dives’ inau-gural dive trip to the site. As the sun rises, we leave Townsville for the two-hour voyage to John BrewerReef. There is an air of anticipation among those on board. Owner and skipper of Yongala Dive, Matt King,is clearly excited to be able to off er visitors to Townsvillea new experience. “This is something diff erent from anything else around,” he says. “Our company dives the famous Yongala wreck (see AG 114) every day, so I’m very spoilt. But as far as a dive site goes, this doesn’t have to be the most fantastic fi shy site in the world – this

site is going to attract people because it’s so diff erent.” In time, the site’s structures will become covered in coral, and fi sh will make them their homes.

“The concept is to bring more people to the reef and region by raising awareness about the reef,” Matt explains.

“Hopefully, they will also learn things they didn’t know, tak-ing home ways in which they personally can have a positive impact on [the reef ’s] preservation. It’s a

Ocean Siren is the fi rst

sign of the underwater

art gallery that lies

70km off shore. PH

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great idea for sure. It’s a trip for everyone, not just divers. Bring Grandma. Surrounding MOUA is this fabulous healthy reef, covered in magnificent plate coral that snorkellers also will love and enjoy.”

Also on board is Richard Woodgett, the underwater videographer employed by artist Jason to document the entire installation process, which took 10 days of living and working out on the reef. The fabrication of the structures took more than nine months in a Townsville warehouse.

Richard describes the operation as highly organised and running entirely to plan. “Initially, the installa-tion process kept getting delayed because of weather. The ocean needed to be like glass, but eventually they picked their window well. The greenhouse and statues were loaded onto a barge and towed by a tug, very, very slowly, to the selected site on the reef.” There were 15 construction crew and four commercial divers, who had full communication with the surface. Bit by bit, it went in.

Jason’s statues are all made of porous, pH-neutral con-crete, which is not harmful to anything alive in the marine environment. In fact, the concrete, complete with lit-tle holes promoting animal lodgings, encourages coral growth, and, in time, will capture spawning coral from the nearby reef. It is envisaged that coral transplanting will also begin once permits and approvals are in place.

To top off this complex construction task, the frame of the Coral Greenhouse, made of corrosion-resistant Grade 316 stainless steel, weighing 58 tonnes, and mea-suring 12m x 9m x 6m, was lowered and attached to a substantial concrete flooring. Mirroring a terrestrial greenhouse, where plants are propagated, this under-water structure sits some 16m down on the seabed, encouraging propagation of both corals and sea life and surrounded by 25 sculptures of various objects and human forms.

IT IS TIME to see it for myself. Diving down to 16m, we make our way towards the outline of the green-house roof, rising through the blue. Sunlight dances

on the fringes of floating umbrella palm sculptures as I swim through the A-frame opening of the greenhouse to be met, instantly, by Kevin the cuttlefish. Kevin is not a statue. Named by pre-opening divers, he’s a real- life spectacular marine mollusc who has taken up early residence in one of the greenhouse’s hanging baskets.

Kevin willingly encourages my own lingering fasci-nation with cuttlefish, then turns his large googly eyes towards me one last time before extending his waving arms, gliding off, switching colours with electrifying speed and leaving me alone in this larger scale magnetic scene of beauty and intrigue. Then I turn my attention to Margaret.

Healthy invertebrate growth on the

statues encourages larger sea life to

enter and make MOUA their home.

She’s a life-sized Reef Guardian, bowing pensively over her microscope, already covered in algae, and attracting fish life that weaves about her features. Margaret Chong is Jason’s muse for this statue, a proud Gangalidda woman from the outback community of Doomadgee, Queensland. She is one of eight human statues tending the reef, building a new relationship with a frail habitat in dire need of protection. I swim slowly from one statue to another, feeling the life they already radiate, entombed in time here, beneath the waves.

One small boy holds a planter pot. Another wields garden scissors. Creeping up the hip of a small girl, hair pulled back in a ponytail and sitting cross-legged beside a watering can, a sea star uses its hundreds of tiny tubular feet to explore its new surroundings. With the com-ing and going of a school of barracuda, the atmosphere of this structure changes as it does when different fish species come and go through its unconstrained design. It has been built to withstand waves and a category four cyclone. I vow to return annually after this dive, to watch with intrigue the story of its growth. “I am making these inert objects, but the environment is giving them souls,” Jason explains. “This is one of the most ambitious artworks I have ever created. It is a portal, or interface, if you like, into our underwater world, for people to understand what a beautiful and sacred space it really is.”

The GBR can teach us about the interconnected-ness of all life. It is up to each of us to implement small changes into our daily lives, to ensure our reefs are here for our children and for the benefit of future generations. It was empowering to see statues cast on real children. These will act as beacons in time, mapping

coral growth and drawing in more hearts to care about the health of our reefs.

Back on Townsville’s foreshore I visit another arm of the installation – Ocean Siren – a 4m-high sculp-ture modelled on Takoda Johnson, a young member of the Wulgurukaba tribe. Ocean Siren is linked to a live feed from a weather station on nearby Davies Reef. Her 202 multi-coloured LED lights change colour depending on the surrounding sea temperature, potentially warning of warming seas and risks to coral reefs. It is another clever, visually emotive, way to highlight the needs of our oceans. “It is very exciting,” Takoda says. “Ocean Siren is look-ing out onto the ocean and reef like my people have done for thousands of years. It is a great honour for me. When I was younger my great-great-grandad would always paint these beautiful paintings and tell us stories of how we always need to respect and look after the ocean. I didn’t really understand. But now that I’m older I feel like we need to think about what we’re doing to the ocean and how we’re impacting it.”

Ocean Siren looks over the ocean to Magnetic Island and beyond, holding a baler shell, a link to the ocean that has been used to blow messages to her people for millennia. MOUA holds an important message for us all as a meeting place of art, tourism and marine science – a beacon of light and life, for the reef, and its future.


The author flew as a guest of Airnorth from Toowoomba

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Fabulously glittering disco balls set

the scene for the Throb on Todd’s

midnight show on the final night of

Alice Springs’ FABalice extravaganza.


WHEN MITZI, FELICIA and Bernadette drove a big silver-turned-pink bus through the Australian outback towards Alice Springs’ Lasseters Hotel Casino Resort in the 1994 movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, no-

one could have known the iconic status it would hold. Now, Priscilla’s legacy lives on at FABalice, a rainbow festival inspired by the movie that had everyone’s lipsticked lips celebrating the raw glitz and glamour of Australian drag.

After a week travelling through the Northern Territory’s Red Centre, I arrive in Alice Springs late Thursday evening. The bus that’s brought me here is a far cry from the glamorous Priscilla, but a fitting start to a weekend that proves “a cock in a frock on a rock” is exactly what this country needs.

A breeze whispers through the air, its warmth forcing the hairs on my arms to stand and then quickly flatten as beads of sweat trail their way over my skin. It’s my first time in the Aussie outback town and I’m astonished by the multifariousness of it all – culturally, geologically and environ-mentally. On one side, the MacDonnell Ranges stand tall and exposed, and on the other, small buildings hug the banks of the Todd River. The township looks like any other in regional Australia, and yet there’s an eccentricity I can’t quite put my finger on. The Todd River runs dry through the town, but today puddles of water offer respite to its consistently parched sands, thanks to a rare light showering of rain.

Story and photography by Anna Kantilaftas

More than 26 years after The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was

released, FABalice brings drag royalty back to Alice Springs for a long weekend of cabaret, rainbows and glittering pride.

Glittering pride for Alice Springs

Festivals and Events


When the harsh sun rises on Friday morning and the tenacious flies start to wake for their daily routine of professional irritations, I navigate my way to the Alice Springs Airport for the FABalice Welcome.

The airport is small, as you’d expect of an outback town, and yet today it takes on an air of extravagance. Rainbow banners and twinkling lights bedazzle the baggage carousel. DJ Clitterally spins her set while expertly flicking her hair as if she’s just stepped off the set of a shampoo commercial, while Marzi Panne and Miss Ellaneous sway their hips and snap photos against the rainbow backdrop. Dressed in a pink dress and blond wig, Teresa Cumnsaw leans against a maroon Bufori Madison; she looks like she was born for the spotlight but is also a little unsure of the part she plays. My eyes are conflicted between the sultry stares of Clitterally and the bashfulness of Teresa.

“I’m new to this,” Teresa tells me, about her journey to becoming a queen. “In 2016 I dressed up for a friend’s 30th. Then FABalice launched in 2019, and I would watch Clitterally do her makeup for different events, and that’s when it all started.

“It was a slow process for me. It wasn’t really until September last year that I started to embrace drag. Clitterally just started dressing me up and doing my makeup. She’s taught me a lot, like how to dress, how to do my makeup. She’s my biggest supporter.”

This support network, I learn, is the hairspray that holds FABalice together.

Between spins, Clitterally, who is originally from Bendigo, Victoria, shares her progression into drag.

“I got approached in Alice Springs by a local bar to host Drag Queen Bingo,” she says. “That was just over 12 months ago now. I’m also very new to it all.

“I’m still a baby drag queen; I’ve got heaps to learn, but being surrounded by all these other amazing drag queens at FABalice, I’ve been picking their brains and learning how to do things.”

WE’RE INTERRUPTED BY the airport’s speakers and suddenly a swarm of people are approaching the baggage carousel after their

three-hour flight from Sydney. They walk towards the colourful display, eyes to

the floor and yet unknowingly bopping along to the beat of Calvin Harris. But even their apprehension can’t stop the glitter contagion of FABalice, and, like magical pixie dust, the queens’ lipstick grins catch on and the closer the passengers walk, the bigger their smiles become.

By the time Friday night rolls around, the fabulous-ness of the weekend has caught on and people arrive in droves at the Alice Springs Convention Centre for the Priscilla Show, the extravagant opening of the Drag Crawl. Colourful wigs, fairy wings and flamboyant outfits decorate the otherwise corporate entrance. A rainbow arch leads to the outdoor amphitheatre where the moon and stars sparkle overhead as if they too were planned decorations.

Gay Roberto’s DJ tunes dampen the chatter of the crowd. Marzi Panne and Miss Ellaneous take to the stage and capture the audience’s attention with their costumes alone. Their flight attendant skit, followed by the show-stealing antics of Freddie Merkin, a drag king, sends me and the rest of the crowd into fits of laughter.

A distinct laugh turns my attention away from the stage. Behind me, a beautiful woman in wide leg pants and a high blond ponytail stares, fixated on the stage.

Teresa Cumnsaw, Miss Ellaneous and Marzie Panne (L–R)

welcome travellers at Alice Springs Airport.

NorthernTerritory

Alice Springs

DARWIN

Producer Jacqui Cunningham,

aka DJ Cunningpants, spins sets while

Miss Ellaneous dances nearby.

The Old Quarry in Alice Springs is a

spectacular outdoor venue that sprinkles

some glamour on the red dust of the outback.


By the time Friday night rolls around, the fabulousness of the weekend has

caught on and people arrive in droves.

Miss Ellaneous and Marzie Panne host the Throb on Todd show,

which features Brokeback Mountain-

inspired acts and pole dancers.



Rainbow wings and

rollerskates are de

rigueur in town during

the FABalice pageant.

I recognise her immediately. At 76 years of age, Carlotta still out-glamours most and I’m instantly drawn to her confi dence and eccentricities.

The alleged inspiration behind The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and the star of former Sydney-based male revue Les Girls, takes to the stage at the night’s second venue, the Star of Alice, alongside famed performer Trevor Ashley. Dressed in a glitzy silver-sequinned gown and white feather boa, Carlottahas the crowd both in stitches and stunned as crude jokes fi ll the space between her singing perform-ances. She struggles across the grassed arena in stilettos, and suddenly eyes avert their attention from her shim-mering dress to the ground, everyone hoping they’re not the chosen subject of her next roasting.

“I looked like a heifer,” she tells me later, laughing off her clumsy attempt to interact with the crowd.

It’s hard not to be entranced by the tenacity of a woman who can make even the rudest and crudest jokes seem endearing, and after tonight there’s an extra twinkle in my admiration for her.

The Drag Crawl ends at Monte’s Lounge, and the crowd seems to have shifted gears into party mode. Cabaret performances by Clitterally, Teresa Cumnsaw, Chocolate Boxx and Drag Territory, among others, get the audience on their feet and quickly turns the fl oor show into a dance party.

As I cart my weary body back to my room, glit-ter is already scattered across most of the footpaths throughout Alice Springs, and it’s almost as if the ground beneath my feet is mirroring the clear, starry sky. And it’s only the fi rst night.

ALICE SPRINGS’ MELTING POT of diversity takes centre stage on Saturday. Rainbow chalk, care-fully crafted by children and families, artfully

adds colour to the town’s Todd Mall, laying the metaphor-ical rainbow carpet for the afternoon’s FABalice pageant.

Floats start to make their way down the mall. This is like Mardi Gras in the Aussie outback and the streets are fi lled with the sounds of people cheering, music blasting, and inquisitive questions, leading the way to the family-friendly Drag Races.

“FABalice does a really good job of visibility and drag culture,” Clitterally prompts, as we watch bystanders join in the racing fun. “Especially since we’re doing all these

family events, which show drag queens aren’t just over-sexualised, 18-plus red light shows. They are actually for everybody.

“All I want to do is make peo-ple happy. All those kids over there,

they’re looking and coming up to us and saying ‘Oh my god you’re so beau-tiful’ and all they see is this big, big,

big emphasis on big, beautiful, strong, independent women... But I just love that

everyone is amazed by all the glitter, and the big hair.”

I contemplate joining the race, but the ex-haustion, caused by a combination of walking, heat and a late Friday night, is getting the better

of me and I realise I don’t have the party stamina I used to. “How do you do it?” I ask Teresa, who is quickly becoming my go-to party pal. “Practice,” she says, “and lots of alcohol.”

I hear her advice but opt for an afternoon snooze in the aircon instead. There’s a big Saturday night ahead, the fi rst of the festivities

Floats start to make their way down the mall. This is like Mardi Gras in the Aussie outback.


Clitterally’s performance takes us to the tropics at Monte’s

Lounge (below). The audience embraces the weekend’s theme

and arrives with glitter, feathers and colourful costumes (right).


being the Ex-DRAG-Vaganza. Held at the spectacular venue The Old Quarry, it’s the highlight event for most of the performers.

A silhouette of exposed red quartzite is lit up by rain-bow lights, and stands as a reminder of where we are. The shade of the night off ers respite from the scorching sun and the relentless buzzing of fl ies, both notorious legacies of Australia’s Red Centre.

The timber dance fl oors of Friday night and the chalky pavement of earlier today are now replaced with dusty red dirt. The Old Quarry feels miles away from town, and more reminiscent of Burning Man than Mardi Gras. Costumes, lycra, tulle and streamers dominate the crowd, contortionists bend their way through a cage and heads sway to the pounding beats selected by DJ Cunningpants. Chocolate Boxx does the splits on stage and Freddie Merkin again sends the crowds into tittering messes.

It’s a f itting pre-show to the magnum opus of FABalice – Throb on Todd’s Midnight Show. I decide to beat the bus crowds travelling from The Old Quarry and arrive at the Alice Springs Convention Centre early enough to not have to join a queue. I haven’t lined up for a nightclub since my early 20s.

Inside, the Convention Centre has transformed from the rainbow splash the night before. Blackened walls, glitter disco balls and curtained booths lay the way for

a night of fun. Teresa, now out of costume, taps me on the shoulder as I inspect the table decorations. “It’s me, Teresa…or Terry,” he tells me, with an embrace. He invites me over to where his entourage is sitting, and one by one I’m introduced to his family and friends. His sister is noticeably beaming with pride at Teresa’s performances during the weekend.

In just two days, I’ve noticed the transformation of Teresa, from the shy woman blending into the back-ground at the airport to the confi dent performer who took to the stage at Monte’s Lounge. I ask Terry what he thinks FABalice does for the community he grew up in.

“[It gets] the community to be more accepting, bringing the conversation of drag to the surface rather than trying to hide. [It’s an opportunity] to come out and feel like you’re just yourself and you don’t need to hide,” he says.

As I sit by the pool on the fi nal day of FABalice, I refl ect on last night’s conversation with Terry about the value of an event like this in a town like Alice.

It’s so much more than just entertainment. It’s an opportunity for people to let their hair down and cel-ebrate the love, pride and glittering community spirit of Alice Springs. Sure, the festival may be inspired by The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but it’s also a showcase of just how far it has come since the movie was released. AG

The crowd pushes to the front to get

a glimpse of Miss Ellaneous, who opens

the Throb on Todd's Midnight Show.

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holidays. Boasting Inyadda Beach

and its surf breaks, as well as the

calm waters of Washerwomans

and Boat Harbour beaches,

A paradise awaits

WHO: Banrock Station

DATES: Year-round, self-guided

walking tours.

MORE INFO: 08 8583 0299,

email cellardoor@banrockstation.

com.au or visit

banrockstation.com.au

A visit to the Ramsar-

accredited Banrock Station

Wine & Wetland Centre is more

than just a visit to a Cellar

Door. Located in the heart of

the Riverland, South Australia,

the Banrock Station Wetlands

boasts more than 1400ha

of fl oodplains, woodlands,

shrublands and native mallee

habitat. All this is home to more

than 180 diff erent bird species,

including the rare regent parrot.

With three self-guided walking

Walks, wildlife and winetracks, information huts and

bird-viewing hides, you are

sure to spot an abundance

of wildlife.

the park is home to resident

wildlife – native birds, possums,

kangaroos, and even stingrays off

the local boat ramp.

WHO: Eclipse Travel

DATES: 6–18 August 2021

COST: From $5800pp


email [email protected].

au, or visit eclipsetravel.com.

au/package/best-of-papua-new-

guinea-experience

Experience a taste of Papua

New Guinea with this tour

to Goroka, Mount Hagen,

Rabaul and the Duke of York

Islands. You’ll learn how to make

traditional bilums, visit the

haunting Asaro Mudmen tribe,

stay at a locally owned mountain

lodge, witness a ritualistic

Baining fi re dance, explore

remote tropical islands, swim

with dolphins, discover Admiral

Yamamoto’s WWII bunker,

Unique culture right on your doorstep!

and so much more. This guided

tour off ers an incredible

overview to all PNG has to off er.

6–18 AUG 2021

OPEN YEAR-

ROUND OPEN YEAR-

ROUND


WHO: APT Touring

DATES: April–Sept 2021

COST: From $7995pp, twin share

SAVE: $1600 per couple*

*Conditions apply.

BOOKINGS:visit aptouring.com.au/gkbk12

Join our expert driver-guides

for an off -road journey of a

lifetime. On our 12-day Iconic

Kimberley small group 4WD

journey, you’ll explore hidden

wonders like Mitchell Falls and

the breathtaking Bungle Bungles.

And aft er exploring by day,

relax in APT’s exclusive luxury

wilderness lodges. APT has been

operating tours in the Kimberley

for more than 40 years, and are

APT Kimberley Wilderness Adventures

APRIL– SEPT 2021

experts in tailoring holidays

to showcase the best of this

magical region.

Dinosaurs of Australia

LIDA XING IS A palaeontologist and palaeo-artist based in Beijing, China. His science-based

reconstructions of prehistoric creatures have featured in National Geographic and Nature as

well as on numerous occasions in AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC. He earned his master’s degree in

palaeontology from the University of Alberta, Canada; has done extensive fieldwork

excavating feathered dinosaurs in China; and has published numerous academic papers on

dinosaur tracks. On this occasion in 2014, Xing illustrated all of Australia’s then-known

dinosaurs for a poster. Australia’s dinosaur species are unique, but our fossil record is meagre

compared with other locations. Our ancient, flat landscape makes fossils hard to find and

leaves them exposed to the elements. The potential for future discoveries, however, together

with a relative lack of knowledge about Australian dinosaurs, makes it an exciting place for

palaeontologists such as Lida Xing.

By Lida Xingfrom an inserted poster AG 122Sep–Oct 2014


The art of AUSTR ALIAN GEOGR APHICAG’s archives are a treasure trove of scientific illustration and botanical and

zoological art. Here we revisit some of the highlights from our vast collection.

EXHIBITION ON SHOWPINE RIVERS HERITAGE MUSEUM | WHITESIDE, QLD | 16 October 2020 – 14 February 2021

ORANGE REGIONAL MUSEUM | ORANGE, NSW | 21 October - 22 November 2020

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA | CANBERRA, ACT | 3 December 2020 – 7 March 2021

Discover the remarkable stories of ordinary Australians

in this exhibition celebrating the bush, the outback, the

coast and the people who live there.

A travelling exhibition from the National Museum of Australia developed in collaboration with

Australian Geographic. Photograph by Colin Beard.

nma.gov.au/portrait-of-australia

EXHIBITION ON SHOWPINE RIVERS HERITAGE MUSEUM | WHITESIDE, QLD | 16 October 2020 – 14 February 2021

ORANGE REGIONAL MUSEUM | ORANGE, NSW | 21 October - 22 November 2020

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA | CANBERRA, ACT | 3 December 2020 – 7 March 2021

Discover the remarkable stories of ordinary Australians

in this exhibition celebrating the bush, the outback, the

coast and the people who live there.

A travelling exhibition from the National Museum of Australia developed in collaboration with

Australian Geographic. Photograph by Colin Beard.

nma.gov.au/portrait-of-australia

2020-11-01 Australian Geographic UserUpload Net

Documents

Transcript of 2020-11-01 Australian Geographic UserUpload Net